Danny Phantom Unlimited: Phantoms of the Heart
by Mr.DarkPhantom
Summary: So this here spins from my current Fanfic Danny Phantom Unlimited, while it is part of the same story and follows the same numbering it also is a mini-serie of its own, like something in betwen. Anyway the second Arc Wendigo! it's focused on Danny and Sam's relationship having troubles he tries to solve while hunting Wendigos in Minnesota, Special Guests The Extreme Ghostbreakers
1. Chapter 1

Danny Phantom Unlimited

Chapter 19

Phantoms of the Heart:

Phantom Traveler, Part 1 of 3

Teaser

Salem, Massachusetts

Two weeks ago.

11:35 PM Local time

In Salem, a young girl with long black, filthy and grassy hair covering most of her face, and pale skin colder than the chilling air of autumn, wearing a black and green cheerleader uniform hauls out of the woods into the streets with a death look in her eyes, walking slowly and dragging her steps.

She wanders with no direction avoiding any contact with any person that came close to her until she finally arrives at a house where a group of teenagers just like her are throwing a party.

Acting as if she owns the place, she walks into the house getting stopped by the host of the party. One of his guests quickly jokes about her unkempt condition while he flirts with her at the same, yet the girl doesn't respond to either the jokes or the compliments, instead she asks for food claiming in faint voice to be hungry.

"What?"

"I… hunger" she says slightly louder.

"Food? I got food," says the guy reaching a bowl of nachos for her. "Well, they're nachos but… they're food." Claims with the bowl in her face.

"No… I hunger… you!" she yells before biting off his neck in a sudden movement.

The poor kid who was expecting to finally lose his virginity tonight, was shrieking in pain as this Jane Doe chew his neck off with her green jagged teeth. The blood gush falls everywhere bathing her as well as those standing around, staring in shock and horror to this foul and unexpected act.

Afraid they might be next, all the guests try to run out of the house screaming for help, but as soon as they step outside of the house they find themselves surrounded by a swarm of zombie-looking creatures. They are ghost-zombies, not that they knew what they were anyway, this is a new specie. In that moment the girl goes ghost-zombie with two green energy rings moving up and down around her, turning into an awful, slender and large green horned monster, with a ghoulish appearance, huge fangs, claws and shreds of skin hanging on her arms and legs, barely keeping some traits of her feminine figure such as her small waist, her large breast, lher ong legs now with scales and her well shaped butt.

The rest of the ghost-zombies go ghost as well, turning into the most awful creatures they all had seen. They jump on the guests, feasting on them. They all scream in fear and pain, some of them get drawn in their own blood, not for too long though, as they would all die that night two minutes before midnight.

First Act: Road Trip

In Amity Park.  
05:26 PM UTC  
Danny flies into his room and falls on his bed after a tiresome ghost zombie hunt that took all morning and a rcent fight with a giant ghost crab with tentacles, turning on his radio with a hand shake and tuning a radio station playing hits from the 90's he has become a fan of in the last years. He puts on his headphones hoping to clear his mind from all the madness and troubles he had had in his life lately while listens the song "Pardon me" by an old grunge band named "Incubus" which is followed by "Serve the Servants" from the legendary grunge band Nirvana. Ironically, the reason Danny likes these songs is because they, somehow, mirror his life lately almost as a perfct soundtrack for it, yet they help him to forget about his problems, as if they weren't real, and give him a quiet moment in which he could feel just like any normal teenager with no worries other than his poor grades and lack of money and a job rather than the safety of the world, something he really needed, but the song soon gets cut off in the middle by a police announcement about several cheerleaders and football players gone missing on Salem, Massachusetts.

The announcement catches his attention, quickly he turns on the volume.

"… according to some eye witnesses, green glowing ghoulish creatures attacked the cheerleader squad from Leonidas High School in Salem, Massachusetts. Reports indicate these are the same creatures that appeared in the suburbs attacking young revelers two weeks ago. The police is still trying to crack the case, but so far they have got nothing to work with, no clues, hints or any indications of any kind, and no theories have been released yet, still the locals got some of their own. Some believe this to be a gang related using costumes, others that this is the beginning of the "zombie apocalypse"…"

"You heard that Gas?" Danny asked to his new ghost suit's ghostly A.I.

"The zombie thing?" Asks with its newly downloaded British accent which made feel Danny like if he was talking to a butler. "Yes, but you don't really think it has something to do with a zombie apocalypse going down, do you?"

"More like a ghost-zombie apocalypse to me. Guess you know what that means?"

"Time for a road trip, sir?"

"Time for a road trip. Pack up your stuff buddy."

"I am your stuff, sir."

"Yes, you sure are."

Danny picks up his traveling shoulder bag and takes everything he needs for his journey into mystery, everything since clothing, toothbrush, till his Fenton ghost hunting gear even though it was now unnecessary if not useless since he already had gadgets like those and more built in his suit, that are even more cutting edge than his parents' technology, and runs down stairs almost crashing with his sister Jazz.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh… Where are you going with that hurry and what's that bag for?" She inquires.

Danny mulls for a few seconds and decides to tell her about his case.

"Ok, I'm going on a hunt in… Salem… Massachusetts

"What?! A hunt?"

"Don't worry, is not a witch hunt. I heard some news on the radio about some missing cheerleaders and what clearly is a swarm of ghozbies haunting the town, and it sounded like a case to me, one that could cheer me up. Got it? 'Cheer me up'? 'Cuz they're cheerleaders and, oh, forget it…"

"Ok, so you are going on a hunt out of the city-out of the state alone and… did you even bother to ask mom and dad if you could leave the state-the city, or even if you could take the car?"

"…So… do you wanna come with me?" He asked trying to avoid her question.

"Just what I thought," she says peeved, with her arm folded and glaring at him.

"But… are you coming with me?"

"Does it look like I'm staying?" she asks walking up stairs, into her room looking for her traveling gear.

"Ah… Yes, it does." He answers.

"Well I'm not."

"Ok, looks like it is road trip time."

Outside of Amity Park.

August 31

06:36 PM Local time

Much to Danny's dislike, Jazz tells their parents' about their case before hitting the road and about him almost taking off alone and without permission, which caused him to get sat down first. All the same to him, he takes on the road with his sister not caring about how upset their parents were at him for almost leaving without saying, after all he had bigger things in his mind going on right now.

Things that easily fade away while driving the Fenton RV. With his hands on the wheel he forgets about his parents discontent about this new found habit of his of taking the family car or the Specter Speeder without permission to go out hunting on his own on different states, he forgets about the pressures of being the only superhero in the world, of school, his problems with Sam, his broken powers, even about the ghosts he goes out to hunt. While driving he feels he can leave behind every burden and worry, everything is peaceful and simple, just as flying. All he has to do is keep moving forward, further, faster until he can't.

Pressing the accelerator pedal he speeds up at 76 Miles per hour running down the highway and breaking the speed limit over thirty miles, with the radio playing "Who do you love?" while he sings along.

Sitting next to him in the passenger's seat is Jazz, concerned about her little brother and all the changes he's been going through lately.

Over the past two years things have changed a lot for Danny due to his identity being public now and his celebrity status. One of the many changes was Danny stretching his "jurisdiction" limits when it comes to ghost hunting, now going after ghosts in other cities and states every now and then with her and the team. Whenever they got word from a ghost case outside Amity Park that the G.I.W. or any other ghost hunters couldn't solve they would take care of it. But more often than before he started to go out all by himself without saying a word, and wouldn't return for days, doing that so often it became a habit now. This got even worse in the last month ever since the bomb, and this new trait of his has her worried more than any other of his changes, not just for not knowing where her little brother takes off to hunt alone but because he wouldn't stop doing it despite all the times his parents sat him down for it and she knows there is a reason for such behave, after all it was not really like him to take off without saying... or was it? Something about this need of sneaking out to fight ghost seems to her more as a cry for attention, as if something is troubling him and Jazz felt there was no better moment to know what that is but now.

"Danny. Danny!" yells Jazz. "Could you listen to me?"

"What? You want me to change the station?"

"No. I just… I think we need to talk."

"Oh my god, are you breaking up with me?" he asks sarcastically.

"I mean it" says staring at him with a serious look. "We have to talk."

"Well, now is not a good time."

"How come?"

"'Cause you want talk to me."

"Danny!"

"Ok, what is it?" says turning down the music.

"Why do you keep doing it?"

"… Ah… Ok, I'm gonna need more clues here, 'cuz I kinda keep doing many things-I keep using the big boy potty. So… what is this about?"

"That's what I wanna know. This new habit of yours, sneaking out to go hunting ghosts behind our backs. Taking the RV or the SS to go out of state without even telling mom and dad, without even telling me! I mean, what is up with that?! You don't have to sneak out or keep things as a secret anymore and you don't need the car, you can fly."

"Do you really wanna have that conversation here? Right now?"

"Yes."

Danny moans exasperated leaning his head on the wheel, annoyed by his sister's questioning even though deep down, he knows she means well.

"Danny that's dangerous!"

"Just because I sneak up to hunt-"

"No that, that! Eyes on the road!" She yells. Quickly Danny lifts his head to look at the road and steer right the RV. "And yes, it is also dangerous and annoying how you always go behind our backs to hunt. Especially when you take the car! Why do you even do that? You can fly faster than this and you don't have to lie anymore!"

"Uh… is this about the car or about me sneaking out?"

"Both. Now answer me."

"Look, I get it might be annoying sometimes," he says looking at Jazz as he slows down, "but… I can't help it, ok? After years of ghost hunting behind our parent's back… it-it became my nature, ok? I can't help to keep secrets, to go hunting on their backs and not saying anything. I need that, it feels natural to me. It gives me a sense of... stability. I know it doesn't look like it, but there are some things about this non-secret identity thing that I don't like and I can't get use to… The thing is I liked ghost hunting better when it was a secret. I liked my life better when I had my secrets and keep them that way. When mom and dad knew nothing about my powers and I had to sneak out all the time, when they didn't have to worry about me fighting ghosts. I guess… I guess life made more sense then," he says prone. "I guess I do this because I wished some things where just the same. Just plane old secret ghost-hunting with secret identity, the normal to me… I miss that, and… I know this is weird but the further I get from them-from the city… the closer I feel to that."

'Danny, I… I didn't know you feel that way."

"That's because I never told you about it. But then again, I never share this kind of stuff with you or anyone, not even Sam. Actually I told you this now because… I feel you are the only person I can share this with, even though I didn't want to."

Is there when she realizes "…you trust me. You really trust me that much?"

"Uh, yeah. You are my big sister, who else do I have to trust my secrets and lean onto when I need help?"

"Aaawww… to think that three years ago you would call me a fink."

"Well I still call you a fink for ratting me on mom and dad. Which reminds me… ypu are a fink!"

"Now that's more like classic Danny," Jazz says pinching his right cheek.

"Hehe… The thing is… this is the only thing that makes sense to me now 'cause nothing else does, especially since the bomb, and with all that's going on now… I need to get away from that, I need something that makes sense. I need something to be like the old times. Or at least something I can call normal, (or maybe) a new normal. Something stable, and so far this is the best I got."

Unfortunately, Danny was caught in the wrong fan-fiction, because as those who had read this story so far may have notice this is not about sense, normal or anything like the old times.

"Hey, it's ok, I got it," said Jazz in a sympathizing tone, laying her hand on his right shoulder. "I wish some things were the same again too, you know? Having my little brother as the world most famous celebrity? I'm not getting use to that yet. Just do me a favor."

"What?"

"Don't take the car without permission!" she yells. "You can fly at Mach 1 and zap anywhere you want, for god's sake. You don't need this... rolling pece of crap, we do."

"You don't know that. Driving is… relaxing, it helps me clean my mind."

"Since when?"

"Since I can drive." And I can't fly just for the pleasure of it, he thinks.

"…Boys," she moans, with her arms crossed sinking in her seat.

"Also, I can only teleport myself to those places I have already been to. I can't got to somewhere I have never been, neither send somebody there."

"Not an excuse. How long until we get there?"

"About three more days. I can cut some time if I go at full speed… Which guessing by the look in your eyes, you don't want me to. But it's ok, I know you like the speed of Grandpa Fenton going to Sunday church."

"Oh great, three more days of confined and rolling passive-aggressiveness to look forward to. This road trip can't get any better."

Second Act: Road Rash

08:24 PM Local time

The sun goes down, the stars come out, the night takes over the sky over and it's time for our Fenton travelers to rest their weary heads after two hours of driving.

Danny parks the Fenton RV on the first motel he sees, one called No Tell Motel, with a glowing vacancy sign.

The two Fenton siblings walk into the motel reception to check themselves in, getting attended by the manager, a blonde lady in her mid forties with brown eyes, a few wrinkles around them and shapely body (for a woman of her age).  
As soon as they walk in Danny asks for a room.

"Sorry, we full up. Won't have room for..." she pauses for a second to look at her watch"...another 20 minutes. You wait?"

"The sign says there is a vacancy." points Jazz.

"The sign says a lot of things sweetie…" Says the manager over the strange muffed noises that come out of the walls. In that moment a red light on the wall behind her goes off with a noisy ringing. "Oh, we have premature departure. You can have room now. How long you want?"

"Just 'till tomorrow." Jazz answers.

"All night?" She whistles, checking them in. "Okay. Just wait while I get you new sheets."

"What?"

"Well, who says Motel service is bad?" Danny jokes.

"You don't think...?"

"Well, what can I say? You insisted to come with me." Danny says mockingly. "Now we can't even get separate rooms 'cuz there's only one free... But no I don't think."

After changing the bedsheets and (barely) cleaning the room, the manager hands them the key to room B-23 on second floor.

"Here you got. You know you look like that guy from tv, the ghost superhero." Points the manager to Danny when handing him the keys.

"Wouldn't know what to say, I've never seen a ghost in my life," he replies.

The two brothers go to their room rather hastily, ignoring the noises coming from the walls.

"You know, I hate to share room with you." Danny says as they walk upstairs.

"What? Why?"

"I really don't like to share room with you or anyone."

"We've shared room before," points Jazz. "That shouldn't be a problem."

"Yeah we have, when I was like six and we lived a two rooms' apartment. Back when we had to share a single room, a single bathroom…"

"Back when we where closer and we shared more," she retorted with an ounce of nostalgia in her voice. "I don't see why we can't do that again. You just shared with me how you feel. I bet you never have that kind of convrsations with Sam."

"That's different, I don't have to smell you…"

"What?"

"…besides we're in a cross-country ghost-zombie hunt, what's closer and more bonding than that?"

"You're right, we're like the freaking Winchester," Jazz replies sarcastically.

"Don't think is a good comparison. Sam wouldn't give a crap about Dean if dies, if you die, I…" Danny mulls for a few seconds and says "Let's keep going."

"Wait, if I die what?

He opens the door of their room hoping to finally rest, but instead he get shocked by the worst thing he could see.

"Oh, no… no, no-no-no-no!" Danny utters repeatedly when he sees the windows blocked with bricks. "You freaking kidding me?!"

"What's wrong with you now?"

"What's wrong with me? The reason I paid for a room is because it's supposed to have bigger windows than the RV so I won't have to-I hate to share room with you," he says again. "Hold me this," says handing her his bag.

"What? You hold your own stuff." She replies throwing it on the king-size bed. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna fix this," he said turning his hand into a pickaxe. "Watch, I'm putting an end to all this gassy craziness before it starts, with my Pickaxe Hand!"

"Gassy craziness? What are you talking about?"

Danny reaches over the wall saying "No more farts" as he pokes the wall.

"…Ok… I don't know what you are talking about or what's got into you now... Since when can you shape your hands anyway?"

"Ah, for while now."

"A while?"

"Yeah. Not too long to say it's an old trick but not so recently to say it's brand new." Answers, barely paying attention to his sister.

"Ok that's frustratingly vague, you can tell me when your life sucks so much you have to run away from it, but not when you get new powers?"

Danny pokes the brick wall a few times, merely scratching it.

"Is not working," she points with her arms folded.

"I know it doesn't work, I can see it doesn't work! This requires something else, something with a little more firepower" says shaping his hand back into a normal fist and releasing a small high pressured green ghost ray from it in a blowtorch manner. "Now step back, this might get filthy."

Jazz stares at him peeved still with her arms folded, thinking her little brother has already lost any ounce of sanity he had.

"I'm going to take a shower." Said irritated for all of her brother's nonsense.

"'K… If you find a serial killer waiting for you in there, just yell and I'll make his face look like Myer's mask," says cutting the bricks off the wall.

"…Sure." Jazz says taking her towels and a bathrobe and walking into the bathroom.

Locked in the restroom, inside the shower Jazz was finally alone with her thoughts and in this skeevy motel in the middle of the road, she was finally away from all the madness that engulfed her life just this week.

Turning on the faucet the water falls all over her head wetting her perfect strawberry blonde hair, running down to meet with all of her shapely body, falling down her swoopy breasts, getting lower onto her slim hips and flat belly then reaching her thin thighs and long legs finally covering all of her sultry body, a body that has drawn the attention from many boys and even a few girls in the past…

Inside the shower, she was hoping to clear her thoughts as she cleans her body and find a brief moment of peace, leave her mind completely blank, free from all the problems in her life, but all that free space would leave room for more questions about her brother Danny, questions like: where did he get that light suit from and why he would not tell them anything about it? What else does he have to hide? And even worst what does he mean with "we are at war with the ghost zone"?

As Danny's big sister Jazz can't help to feel worried about him, she is to look over him and ever since the bomb Danny has been acting strange, completely out of himself -more than before since he became a celebrity- and even though he claims to be all right about Las Vegas' incident, what he said earlier on the road proved otherwise, and now she can't help but feel he needs her help more than ever before. Her only problem is she doesn't know how to help him... No, she knows what to do, how to help him, but... how could she make thing like before?

Half an hour later when Jazz comes out of the bathroom with her bathrobe and a towel bundled on her head, Danny was nearly over with the window and the floor was a dusty mess.

"You done there?" She asks.

"Yes… Almost…" He answers covered on dust, pushing the wall with his shoulder, throwing it on top of a car parked below their room, setting off the alarm. "I'm gonna get something to eat." He says ignoring the car he just smashed.

"Could you bring me a…" Danny vanished without a trace before she could finish her sentence. "I hate when he does that. Is such a jerk thing."

Back in a near gas station with a convenience store named Gaz 'N' Zip where Danny stopped for gas an hour ago, he picks up food for him and his sister, or what he considers is food, namely chocolate bars, chocolate cookies, strawberry ice cream, vanilla ice cream, salty chips, Doritos, sodas, a white chocolate box, and other kinds of junk food and things with large amounts of sugar.

When walking on the fruit section to pick up something for Jazz, he sees a little boy messing with his big sister who was no more than two or three years older than her brother and remembers the time when he and his sister use to travel with their parents and the way he use to prank and mess with her all the time putting gum on her hair, itchy dust on her pillow and poke her arm on the road. On the other hand, she would also play along putting hot sauce in his food or turning off his night light and even putting pink dyer on his shampoo.

Danny recalls those fond moments with a smile and nostalgia wishing they could live those moments again since those were the good times, when everything was normal and their lives made sense.

Danny takes his "supplies" to the register attended by a skinny guy with curly hair and deadpan face named Steve.

"Hi Steve, uh, you don't have any pie or cake… or anything sugary… other than candies?"

"Sorry, no." He answers displeasing, drawling his words.

"I'm guessing you don't have a girlfriend, either," Danny asked sarcastically.

"Sorry, no," says the same way.

"Yeah… you sure are. I guess this is everything then."

"Cash or credit?" asks the cashier putting the "supplies" in a plastic bag.

"Credit."

"Sir, your sister has your parents' credit card," Gas reminds him.

"Cash." says Danny taking out his wallet.

"That would be 368 $."

"Keep the change" says giving him four hundred dollars. "Ok thanks and… good luck with the ladies… Steve." Danny says taking his bag and teleporting back to the motel room.

"…Wow…." mumbles the cashier drawling his words.

Back at the hotel room, he appears without any warning yelling at his sister.

"Hey Jazz, I'm here! I brought you some fruit! Hope you are wearing something! I really do," he whispers to himself turning around looking for his sister.

"No need to yell, I'm right here," she says in her blue pajamas walking out of the bathroom again.

"I brought you an apple" says throwing it at Jazz.

"Thanks. What's all that?" Asks looking at the ludicrous amount of candy and junk food he bought.

"That's my food. Except for the fruits. The rabbit food is yours."

"You call that food?" Asks surprised.

"Yep. Only the finest for the finest." Answers putting the bag on one of the two night tables in the room, the one on the right side of the bed, taking out the salad chips. "What do you call it?"

"I call that a heart attack in a plastic bag.

"Don't be so… ludicrous" says opening the chips.

"You know what that means, I'm impressed."

"Sixty percent of this is air… with salt. Hardly enough to cause me any health trouble." Or to make it any worst, he thinks.

"I'm sure dad said that once… too many, you got his genes and you've already exhibit way too much of him. You know, one day you'll look back and you'll wish you had eaten some of this," says biting her apple.

"'Cuz it made wonders for Eva."

"Cute. Anyhow, I made some research on the case while you were away," says sitting on the left side of the king size bed, taking her laptop from the night table on the left. "Turns out this is not just in Salem. A few similar cases of abduction where people claims to have seen green glowing zombies have been happening on cities and states near Amity Park for the last month, and they seem to have been migrating all the way to Salem where there is the largest number of raptures and attacks so far. And two weeks ago there was an attack, a girl was seen hauling on the streets with no path, wearing the school's cheerleading squad uniform. She seemed pretty much like a zombie though nobody really cared, most people thought she was cosplaying or something."

"Cosplaying? What's wrong with people?"

"I know. Then she walks into a party and according to neighbors, minutes later green zombies appeared out of nowhere when she walked in and surrounded the house, when the kids started running out like crazy they turned into ghosts. The rest… well, we've seen enough slasher and zombie movies to know where it was going"

"Wait. You made a research on the twenty minutes I was gone and came up with all this? What a nerd you are," he mocks with a smug smile.

Jazz glowering at him says "Ha, real mature Danny."

"So… why Salem? Why is it such a hot spot? I don't think the witches' history has anything to do with it. And why the cheerleaders? I can't come up with an answer for that. Not one that makes sense anyway," says sitting next to his sister.

"I know, it doesn't make any sense" agrees Jazz. "So I kept digging, and… I got nothing except that most of the abductions and sightings happened at night. Does it makes any sense to you?"

"Only if they're sunlight intolerant… or if they turn into ghozbies at midnight like a werewolf, which as far as the G.I.W. tests can tell, is not the case-that's right I got them bugged. What about the victims? Do they have anything in common or is it just random? Maybe there is somebody yanking the strings, controlling the ghozbies."

"You mean like Technus?"

"I don't think this is him. Attacking horny teenagers and cheerleaders is not his style, but neither was using zombies though, maybe if we can find a connection between the victims we can figure who is controlling the chompers."

"Why are you so convinced someone is controlling them?"

"Is the only thing that makes sense… barely. 'Cuz let me tell you, ghouls attacking cheerleaders doesn't make any sense, sounds like the lousy-ass plot for a comic. So, the only explanation I can come up with is that, someone somehow is able to control the zombies like Technus does killing for some pitty-ass vendetta. And if we can find something the victims had in common we can start a profile for our unsub."

"Using the brain, eh? Looking fort a pattern just like a real cop would do? Who is the nerd now?" says Jazz glad to see her brother using his brain and not his fists for a change.

"Give me a break, I just watched a whole season of 'Criminal Minds'. But that's gonna be my new angle now, using the brain rather than just slugout things."

"I see…" she says typing on her keyboard.

"You know me, always working the angles…" he yawns feeling tired. "Why don't you work on that while I… rest for a while? …All this driving got me tired," he yawns again. "You know, this road trip reminds me of the old days… when we used to travel with mom and dad… when things were normal…" he yawns falling asleep on his sister's shoulder.

"Yes, it is just like the old days." Jazz said with a smile looking at her little brother as he sleeps on her shoulder like he used to do as a child.

No Tell Motel

September 1

08:16 AM

Danny wakes up from a sound sleep, in his motel room by the sunlight streaming into his room through the handmade window, on the same bed with his sister with his arm around her cuddling and moaning placidly with a wide smile whilst drooling on his pillow.

The moment he opens his eyes he gazes at his sister's orange hair and realizes among some things he is cuddling her. Quickly he jumps out of bed yelling disgusted, shocked and angry.

"Danny… what the hell…?" She asks waking up with half her brain still sleeping.

"I just woke up… in bed… with... you… and I was cuddling. Eeewww. This is exactly why I hate to share room with you" says angry and disgusted.

"Oh, grow up." Says stretching her arms.

"How am I ever going to un-remember this?

"Yeah… While you are on it… you got dry saliva on your chin," she points getting out of bed.

"What?" He asks touching his face. "Now that's nasty."

09:00 AM

Danny and Jazz drive to the closest truck stop to breakfast before they get going again. While on the way Jazz becomes afflicted by an intense itching around her legs and thighs, and wouldn't stop scratching, specially her butt.

"Geez Jazz, you look like a monkey scratching your butt that way," points Danny holding his laugh as they walk into the dinner.

"Argh. I don't know what's wrong. I think I'm allergic to our soap…" retorted as she scratched her legs effusively. "Or maybe there was something in our bed. I knew we shouldn't trust that motel."

"Sure, it must be that. Probably nothing to do with your pants," he answers grinning proudly as they take a seat in a table next to a wall with a witch clock on it.

As they sit, Jazz asks "You-did you do something to my pants?!"

"Your pants? Oh, hell no! I would never do that."

"But you did something, didn't you?"

"Who's there to say Jazz? It's not like someone could see me dusting your panties with itching powder while you were in the shower," he answers almost laughing.

"You what?! Why would you do such thing?" She asked scratching inside her thighs.

"Do what? I didn't do anything." Says holding his laugh.

"Man, we're not kids anymore, Danny. We're not gonna start that crap up again."

"Start what up?"

"That... prank stuff. It's stupid, and it always escalates! Did you forget how it ended last time, didn't you?!"

"No, it didn't end as much as mom and dad had to intervene when I put Nair in your shampoo."

"And I made you look like a ghost by putting green ink your liquid body soap and mom and dad almost shoot you thinking you were a ghost."

"Yes, yes you did. Those were the days, weren't they? Really, good times those."

"Stupid time those! Why would you want that again?"

"Well, I felt... naughty, just like the old days."

"And your first thought, your first instinct was dust my underwear with itching powder?"

"Yep. So… what you gonna do now?" Asked with smug grin pulling a string from the witch clock on the wall making the witch laugh. "Mom is not here to stop me and rant about it."

"Oh is that so?" Asks turning off the witch.

"Yep"

Jazz leans glaring at him. "Then it's on!"

"No, now it's on," he said turning on the clock's laughing again.

"All right. Just remember you started it." Jazz warns him.

"Oh ho, bring it on baldy."

With those words they mark the overdue continuation of their last prank war being this fight the reason why their parents wouldn't take them on road trips more often -if not ever again- even though the family car is actually a (weaponized) Recreational Vehicle. This was the first time Danny had pranked her in almost eight years, and he was eager to see what she had for him, he wanted to go all the way through with it for long has been since these sibling have played with each other as brothers.

Soon after they sat down a brunette teenage waitress took their orders. They both asked for a portion of waffles and in the twenty minutes it took their order to be ready, Jazz goes to the RV to change her underwear and wash the itching powder off. Needles to say she was mad at Danny for doing such thing and was already planning her retaliation. Much to Danny's surprise, she put Fenton Super Glue in his waffles while he was looking at the waitress' rear, thus gluing his mouth.

"Yeah, that's what you get for looking at another girl's butt, lil' brother." Jazz says with a mug grin, turning on the witch clock so it would laugh at him. "Will you be eating those waffles?...say what you want, but I will be taking the waffles," said as he mumbles muffed rants, taking Danny's portion.

10:24 AM

Jazz and Danny get back rolling only this time Jazz was at the wheel sharing with Danny what she discovered last night while he slept after Danny unglued his mouth with his ghost powers and continue the research on her laptop using his suit's wi-fi (even though he wasn't transformed), trying to put some sense to these ghost-zombies attacks.

"So there is no real connection to the victims?" He asks sitting with his face in the laptop, typing hastily and with his mouth sore and his tongue peeled.

"Only one, most of the victims were at a party when they got attacked. Other than that, none that I could see," she answers. "The only victims with another connection besides loving parties are the cheerleaders and football players from Salem. They all attended to the same school and most of them where at that party I told about."

"Damn it! This can't be it. Hhhhmmm… what do cheerleaders and athletes have in common? I mean other than they would only have sex with each other of course…" he wonders getting a dirty look from his sister. "Well whatever it is, I'm sure is not their brains they ate them for."

"Maybe there isn't a connection. They're zombies after all. They don't think, they act based on instinct." Jazz points. "Or that's what every crappy zombie movie says anyway."

"So their instincts tell them to eat cheerleaders even if their one of them? Well that is winner."

"Hey is not an exact science."

"Yeah, but then why would they all migrate to this particular place?-Oh check out this, last night there was another ghozbie attack at another party in, wait for it… the middle of the woods."

"You kidding me?! How-? Why would they even-? …Who are the victims?"

"This time… horny teenagers from Salem. I think they're lowering their standard, not even wannabe cheerleaders."

"Could you be more specific?"

"I could but those are too many names."

"What were they doing in the middle of the woods?"

"One of the survivors-the only of the three survivors that can talk so far-says they were there to have a 'memorial party' for their lost friends when one of them. a cheerleader, came out of the threes followed by a horde of chompers behind just like the last time, and then, well you can imagine what comes next. Still think there's not a connection? 'Cuz I'm pretty sure that's not a coincidence that is pretty much the same modus operandi last horde used in the attack."

"Come take the wheel." Orders Jazz.

Danny gets up walking toward the driver seat asking "Why?"

"'Cause we need to get there fast and I don't want to break the speed the limit."

"So you ask _me _to do it? First you super-glue my mouth and now this? Who are you and what did you do with the real Jazz?-You know what? Forget it, I like you better."

"Yeah well, enjoy me as long as I last… That didn't sound as I mean it."

Danny laughs "I'm sure it didn't."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 20

Phantoms of the Heart:

Phantom Traveler, Part 2 of 3

Third Act: Ghostly Touch

Salem, Massachusetts.

September 2, 12:45 PM Local time

Jazz and Danny arrive at Salem a day earlier, due to Danny powering the RV's ecto-converter with his own exceeding ghost energy, boosting the vehicle so it would run much faster than usual breaking the speed-limit driving over 210 miles per whenever there were no other cars in the road, though he kept the RV intangible most of the time, just in case.

As soon as they get to town, they look for the Chief Robert M. St. Pierre Police Headquarter, name given to the police station after the former Chief of police.

"My god Danny, you drive like dad!" Jazz claims as she gets out of the car with her legs shaking, glad to set foot on firm ground. "No, scratch that, you drive worse than dad."

"Oh please, I do not drive like dad, I kept the tires on the road all the time. The RV didn't jump not even once."

"You melted the tires on the ground. That's a huge difference" she replies exasperated.

"…See? That happened because I kept the car on the road, not jumping so there you have it. Dad would have kept the car jumping and bumping all the way up here." Danny says as they walk toward the station. "Besides that way was faster, that's what you wanted. You should thank me, sometimes I feel unappreciated by you."

"What can I say? Sometimes you make that a challenge of your own."

"And here I thought we had a bonding brotherly moment these days."

"Yeah right. Nothing says bonding moment like telling your sister how you feel and then starting a prank war."

"Exactly. Definitely I'm starting to love you more than the real Jazz."

The two Fenton keep arguing as they walk into the station looking for whoever was in charge of the ghost-zombie circus the station had turned into these past few weeks.

As soon as they step inside the building they see how the ghost-zombies had became the main priority of all the station, breaking havoc inside its wall.

Every member of Salem's police force in uniform or plainclothes from every division, was working on the case and hardly anyone would take their eyes away from the boards and folders with pictures of the victims, crime scenes and out-of-focus pictures of the ghost-zombies taken with phones by the witnesses. Hardly anyone was paying attention to them, luckily for them a female police Officer had second free to attend them.

"Hello kids, can I help you with something? - asks female Officer, a 5, 6 foot tall black woman with huge green eyes and a sturdy complexion and short hair. The woman somehow reminds Danny of an older version Valerie which then reminds him of his awkward conversation with her before leaving town.

"Yeah, I'm special agent Padalecki, this special agent Ackles" Danny says to the Officer getting a weird and confused look from his sister and a peeved stare from the Officer. "We're here to help with the ghost-zombie case."

"Aha, if you kids are with the FBI, then I'm with the Cirque du Soleil over here. Look kid we are too busy to be goofing around over here with you two, so if you had your fun then please leave before I put in jail for impersonating an FBI agent."

"…Well, I tried. Looks like Hollywood lied to me again!" says Danny.

"Look kid we really don't have time to be playing with clowns like you, and… wait a minute I think I know you" says the Officer taking a better look at his face. "You are that ghost kid from tv, aren't you?"

"Well technically I'm a man now and I don't have my own tv show anymore, thanks to some idiots from the channel, but yes I'm Danny Phantom!" Claims loudly with his fists in his waist, calling attention from everyone in the room for just a few seconds. "And this is my sister Jazz, she is human, not important" he says demeaning her as a sidekick in a derisive way, just for the pleasure of pissing her off.

"Hey! That is rude" Jazz says.

"Oh my! My kid loves you, he idolizes you."

"Ha-ha… well thanks…" he says blushed.

"I'm guessing you guys are actually here for these, "ghsot-zombies" you said?"

"I call them ghozbies for short… or chompers, but yeah."

"Ghozbies? So that's a thing, eh? And here I thought the news was scrapping the bottom of the barrel with the headlines."

"Yes, and how do we call you…?" asks Jazz.

"I'm Officer Rambeau, Monica Rambeau. But you can call me Monique. Everyone does."

"Ok, eh, could you take us to your boss?" inquires Danny. "Tell him or her you got some… specialized help for this case."

"Sure thing, sweetie. Come with me."

Officer Rambeau takes them to the office of the Chief Rick Grimes, who is yelling at the Mayor on the phone, who called looking for good news to make the parents and citizens feel better. The words are so loud that can be heard across the hallway.

"…well tell the parents I have every man and woman in every division working to hunt freaking zombies that are invisible and appear out of nowhere and fade away the same way! Tell the news that the police department has now become the Ghost Busters department and all we need to crack this case is Ash Williams' help! Is that enough of a good news to you, sir?!"

Mad and frustrated like he has never been, he slams the phone on his ebony desk repeatedly.

"You kids wait at the door here for a moment. I'll try to chill him up."

The Officer walks into the office to inform her boss about their presence. She takes a few minutes first trying to calm him down.

"She gets you nervous" points Jazz. "Does she reminds you of someone?"

"What?"

"You guys can come in" says Officer Rambeau.

Danny and Jazz step into the office where the Chief had already calmed down and greets them kind and cheerfully, shaking their hands very hard.

"It's an honor to meet you, eh sir." Says shaking Danny's hand.

"Sir? That's what I'm talking about, respect." Danny says with a huge smile.

"Well I must say, when Officer Rambeau here told me we were getting special help I thought it was those government types, what's their name?

"The Guys in White?" asks Danny.

"Yeah, what's their name?"

"The Guys in White."

"Yes, them, who are they?" asks the Chief again.

"The Guys in White are named the Guys in White. That's their name" explains Danny. "And I wouldn't expect too much from them. I've been kicking their ass since I was fourteen. Frankly we are more qualified for this task than they are" he states in assured of his words, almost sounding overconfident to Jazz.

"Big words coming from such a young man" points Chief Rick. "I like to see that."

"Hell yeah. So what do you got so far?"

"Cutting straight to chase, eh? I like that too. So far the only thing we got is a bunch of eaten horny kids and a bigger lot of angry parents raging for answers and jackal reporters middling trying to uncover some sort of stupid cover up theory that doesn't exist or… I don't know what they came up with now. Every time we get a case with this many dead bodies they think it's a conspiracy."

"That happens when you grow watching Bourne Supremacy" Danny jokes.

The Chief shares with Danny and Jazz everything they got so far and names Officer Monica Rambeau as special "ghost hunter liaison" for this case, and tasks her with helping them for anything they might need. He was also kind enough to let them use the former police station in the 17 street as their personal headquarter so they wouldn't have to stay in a motel room or the RV, something they were very grateful for, all the had to do was moving their bed from the RV to one of the manny empty offices.

The former police station was long abandoned since 1992 and was currently undergoing through some repairs to be used again but even though it wasn't ready, it was good enough for them to stay as long as they need.

That same afternoon they go see the survivors of the last ghost-zombie attack. Two of them were in coma and the only one who would be of any help was the only cheerleader left, Stacy Blair.

All her life Stacy has been a bit of a living cliché: a pretty natural with big blue eyes, loved by every guy at school, and hated by all girls except those who secretly love her the same as the guys. When hitting puberty she would become the classic blond bombshell who would become head of the cheerleader squad, becoming the most popular girl with a reputation that would often be in the fringes. But, unlike most blond clichés, she was not dumb, instead she was one of the smartest girls at school, something she didn't even have to strive for. To this Danny could argue that she was a blonde and actually popular version of Jazz to which she replies "I'm not a slut", but then again being now the sole survivor of a real life "horror film" surely didn't make any good for her "real life cliché" status.

They fly to her apartment downtown where she was alone with her single mother who was scared to death for the recent events and decided to leave Salem for good, to someplace free of ghosts. "Good luck trying to find that now" thinks Danny.

Once there Danny asks "So, how do you wanna play this? Good cop. Bad cop?" before knocking the door.

"We're not… you know what? You can play bad cop."

"Sweet!"

When the door opens they introduce themselves and ask to talk with Stacy about the incident, the mother refuses to let her talk with them but Danny wasn't in the mood to get a no for an answer, so he phases himself and his sister into the apartment.

"What are-? How did you get in here?" Asks the mother.

"What part of I'm Danny Freaking Phantom you didn't get… ma'am?"

"Mrs. Blair, I get this is difficult but we really need to talk to your daughter" Jazz says talking polite and sympathetic, completely different from her brother.

"I won't-"

"It's ok mom…" Says Stacy walking downstairs. "I'll talk to them."

"Sweetie you don't have to-"

"I do, mom."

Stacy insist in talking to them much against her mother's will, who agrees to leave the living room grudgingly, moving into the kitchen. With the mother gone, the daughter starts talking with the Fentons.

"I'll tell you everything I told the police" she says.

"Ha. No, we read that in your statement, what about you telling us what you didn't tell the police?" Danny answers in a rude manner surprising even Jazz.

"Like what?" Asks Stacy.

"Like what were you doing there in the first place?" Jazz asks kindly.

"Seriously, a party in the woods two weeks right after. Half your classmates got chomped during a party? What were you thinking?!" He asks.

"I…"

"You weren't thinking. A party in the woods? Can guys be any more of a cliche?-Don't answer that."

"That's… a good point, but still beside the point Danny." Jazz says.

"Right…"

"You're not going to let that go, are you?" Jazz asks.

"…No"

"Ok, I'll make the questions" she says. "Stacy, tell us exactly what happened last night?"

"I was there to have sex."

"Well that's blunt honest" Danny points, "good to see she doesn't mind to be honest."

"Ok, what else happened last night?" Asks Jazz.

"But cut the obvious part. Tell us something useful."

"Like what? The only thing I didn't tell them was that I was… that I was there to have sex with… my best friend's boyfriend… because I thought she was" she says keeping herself from crying, with a lump in her throat.

"Uh, but at least you waited till she was dead… or half dead" Danny jokes.

"Danny, shut up!" Orders Jazz, glaring. "Please continue. Who was this friend of yours?"

"…Janet."

"That's the one appeared out of nowhere, right?" Asks Danny.

"Yes. All this time we thought they were all dead and then… they appear out of the blue… and eat us all and…" Stacy begins to cry uncontrollably, with huge tears tuning down her cherry-cheeks. She covers her face in shame.

"Wait, that means you were having sex with the zombie chick's boyfriend, right?"

"How could I call myself her friend when the first thing I do when she dies is going to a party to sleep with her boyfriend? We know since kindergarten, we shared everything! You know for a second there I stopped and I told to myself 'why am I doing this?' And I felt like the worst friend ever, like I was worth shit."

"We'll… you were just loyal to your friendship. You just were… oversharing stuff, in this case her boyfriend" Danny says. "Though… you should have probably asked first, I think that's what up set her."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Jazz.

"I think I got our first clue, I'll tell you later. Anything else you might have forgotten in your statement?"

"No" she cried.

"Do you know anyone who might have a grudge against you and your party friends? Anyone who might seem good with computer stuff or… murdery?

"That could be narrowed down to the entire A.V. club, the science club and the Goth club."

"The Goth club?" Jazz asked.

"Yes, we got so many of them wandering around the school the principal thought it was a good idea to give them their own club. I think that's an excuse to lock them away in a room so we wouldn't have to put out with them in the halls." Stacy explains to them.

"Wow, and here I thought Principal Ishiyama was a Japanese female version of Kim Jong" says Danny laughing.

Before leaving Jazz asks one more time "You sure there isn't anything else? Anything can help us."

"…chain marks… I-I'm not sure… but I think she hand chain marks in her hands and heels"

"Chain marks?" They ask.

"I'm not sure, but I saw some weird marks on her before… before she turned into that thing," she cried.

"If that's the case, that means she probably was held captive, she was a prisoner, which could confirms your theory that there is someone behind all this attacks." Jazz retorted. "Maybe he or she keeps them locked down and chained until-"

"Gutsy wants out," Danny cuts her off blurtting another bad joke.

"Oh my gosh. You-you think somebody is forcing her to do this? You think someone is torturing her?!"

Danny answers to her query. "That's what we're trying to find out."

"…do you know if the police found my phone?" She asks. "I lost it last night."

"No but I'll give it to you if I found it."

"Eh, who planned this party?" Jazz pondered.

"I-I don't know. I found out about it by one of those text messages that people sends so many times that no one knows where it started."

"Well whoever it was, sure is modest enough to not brag about this… killer party." Danny jokes.…

Exasperated and painstakingly Jazz asks him to stop. "Danny just don't."

"If that's it… then I guess we gotta go now. Eh, whatever you may need, you can ask me anytime" he says to Stacy, "we're at the old police station. Anything just say my name. Here is my card."

"I just told you I don't have a phone."

"Use the house phone. Damn kids today," Danny says.

Danny hands her a presentation card with his phone number and the words "Danny Phantom Full Time Superhero!" written on green with black background.

"Wait, since when do you have presentation cards?" Inquired Jazz.

"Since I realized cool and important people do, and I'm the most important and coolest person in the world," says with a smirk.

"Ok…" Stacy says a second before Danny teleports himself and Jazz back to the old police station.

"All right, that was one of the most awkward and… weirdest interrogations we've had, and we've had quite some."

"No kidding, I felt so bad I couldn't even go and be full bad cop with her." Danny says.

"Danny you were being bad everything."

"Says you. Anyway I think I got a clue. What she said about Janet showing up when she was having sex with her boyfriend, what if she was appeared there because of that?"

"Like if she or somebody (assuming she is controlled) was waiting for that exactly? What are the odds?" Inquires Jazz.

"Maybe. Or maybe… it was because she felt guilty for doing that and maybe she sensed that guilt and went after her. Some ghost tend feed on emotions, you know? Maybe it worked as a beacon for her and her new chomper pals."

"Ok, so your theory is that either our unsub was waiting for Stacy to sleep with Janet's boyfriend to send her there so she'll have a reason to eat them all (which she didn't)… or that she sensed them having sex and went there to kill them by her own will taking her ghost-zombified friends with her?… It actually makes sense."

"Really? 'Cause I feel like my head just exploded trying to beat some sense into that?"

"That happens when you don't use your brain too often."

"Ouch. Ouch. That was rude."

"Well you started it."

Fourth Act: A cat in a box.

Two days pass without any sign of a ghost-zombie in the city, the police department keeps working hard to crack the case but not even with the new clues Danny gave them they seem to have any progress in the investigation.

The only thing they have so far is half the school's senior students dead or missing, a swarm of ghost-zombie hybrids on the loose and well hidden, and a possibly murderous party planner that might or might not be the one controlling the ghost-zombies to eat the students following some personal agenda.

Jazz mentions the possibility of Technus being the one behind these attacks, but this is way too out of his style to be him even with all the changes in his methods says Danny, and there was not a trace of his ecto-signature anywhere in the town or the signal he uses to control them, so Danny rules him out as a suspect.

Having no suspects and no more clues to work with, each night Danny spent in Salem he would duplicate himself and patrol the city watching those places where the ghost-zombies were seen the most and the backwoods where they were last seen, during the day he and Jazz would split their time between work and pranking each other, with the score so far as a tie with Danny hiding a three days dead fish under her bed and replacing her honey essence shampoo with actual honey, and Jazz turning the car radio's volume all the way up while he was filling the tank and then turning off the radio, startling Danny with a Japanese Goth song when he turns it on and replacing his Coke with soy sauce during lunch.

Using his suit's ghost scanners he tries to find the ghost-zombies but there is nothing the suit can trace, not even the slightest trace of ecto-energy from them. Due to their flawed nature, they produce low ghost energy that burns out faster than a real ghost or hybrid's ghost energy, leaving nothing behind as if they were never there -in this aspect, they seemed more of a ghost than a real one-, the same case is with their nanites' energy, that until they start malfunctioning and overloading turning the ghost-zombies into walking bombs. Fortunately for them, this hasn't happened yet.

Tonight Danny would get bored of patrolling and investigating this case having no progress, so he flies back to their temporal H.Q. back at the old police station, where he and his sister sleep in beds given to them by the police from what Danny insist is a murder house -instead of their own which he couldn't rip out from the RV-, and finds Jazz sitting in a desk still doing research in her laptop.

"Still working in the computer?"

"Yep."

"Nerd. What can you possibly find there that we don't know already?"

"I would give you a smart answer if you weren't right" replies closing her laptop and getting away from the table with a hand full of papers. "There is nothing there I can find to solve this case, except for… boom! This" she says rubbing the handful of papers in his face.

Danny grabs and eyes the paper sheets with names and addresses asking "What am I looking at?"

"This is a list of every abandoned warehouse, building or any other similar place that could be used to hold hostages. If the girl had chain marks as she said, she and the others must be held prisoners somewhere, somewhere isolated…"

"…as every movie and tv show teaches to all those wannabe criminals out there-"

"That's-Would you stop it with the movie thing? This isn't a tv show, this here, this is real life."

"Don't think so. I'm very pop cult savvy now. You are the nerd of this team, I have to be the cool one."

"Wait, Tuck is the nerd of the team."

"Not talking about the Team Phantom, I'm talking about these team, our team, just the two of us. We're the freaking Fenton, we're Team Fenton."

"Aaawww, how cute, you think we're a team of our own" she says hugging her little brother very hard.

"Jazz… I can't breathe…" says tapping her back.

Jazz let's go of her little brother. "Sorry. Anyway I think we should rest and check those places tomorrow."

"Sure." Agrees Danny getting his air back.

"Why hasn't the police done this yet?"

"They did check some places but… they don't have the man power to check all this places or the equipment to find ghosts… zombies."

"So is up to us…" says with a grave voice tilting his head with his hands on his waist. "You know that would have been dramatic if I was wearing sunglasses."

"My glob…" she says exasperated, going to her bed.

September 5

09:35 AM Local Time.

At the next morning, when walking into Jazz' "room" Danny finds her sleeping face down with her head buried deep in her pillow, her snoring usually hard is muffed by it. Jazz couldn't help to oversleep for all the hard work she did but Danny's powers would keep him from doing that as he only needed to rest four hours a day, unless he wanted to sleep more. This time he didn't want to oversleep, he wanted to be done with this case as soon as possible, to get the one behind these attacks and get over with the ghost-zombies for once and for all. For that reason, Danny got up an hour ago, after a night of almost no sleeping -though this time it was not because of his powers, but his problems he wouldn't sleep- and decided it was time for Jazz to wake up too.

Setting his phone at full volume he plays "Psychosocial" on her ear startling her and waking her up abruptly.

In a swift movement, she turns around with an ecto-gun she kept hidden down her pillow pointing at Danny.

Danny was surprised and glad to see his sister was prepared to fight ghost at any moment even in her sleep, since he knew better than no one that they can attack at any time. "Nice reflexes! Better the hair" says throwing her a towel at her face. "Time to shower we got empty warehouses to check."

"Argh, what's wrong she you?!" asked taking the towel off her face. "I could have shoot you."

"Yes, yes you could. That's good, it could have been other ghost."

"You are crazy."

"Yeah. RV. Bathroom. Now. Chop chop."

"When did you become the one who tells me to take a shower?" Inquires getting out of bed.

"What can I say sis'? I'm not a little kid anymore. Time to become a man and take of my responsibilities. In this case you."

"Aha, how do I know this isn't some prank and you want me in the bathroom again to put god know what in my panties?"

"Ok, you got me. Now you won't shower and you'll have to smell like skunk all day. Because a joke it's always fun the second time."

Jazz moans saying "This better not be a joke."

"Hey, would I lie? Ah, by the way Officer Rambeau called, she said there was another team of ghost hunter here for the case too, I think we should check in and see who they are."

"You don't think…"

"No, you know I don't."

Salem's Hospital.

10:26 AM Local Time

In the walls of the local hospital, two of the victims of the last ghost-zombie attack lay in bed in a comatose state, guarded by two police officers each one.

This attack left only three survivors, one of them the blond bombshell cheerleader Stacy Blair who aside from her emotional trauma and a few cuts and scratches on her knees was unharmed. The other two were Dylan Marmel and Robert Paulsen, who whereas they were luckier than their friends, they weren't lucky enough to escape the wrath of the ghost-zombies unharmed as Blair.

So severe is their state that she might as well be the one survivor should any of them not wake up, and truth be told the doctors don't have any real hope of that happening any time soon, if not any time at all.

Today before leaving town for good, Stacy goes to the hospital to see her friends to apologize with them since they wouldn't be there if not for her. She apologizes with Dylan who was like a big brother to her their entire life and who didn't want to go to the party in the first place since he knew it was a bad idea to go not knowing who was behind it, but went with her anyway because she knew he couldn't say no to her and she needed him as a driver. She apologizes to Rob, her best friend's boyfriend whom she seduced that night with her allure and booze only to know what her friend was getting every night and so she can cross him off her list.

Truly, if it wasn't because of her Dylan would be hale and hearty and so would Robert…

It is truth that sometimes she was what some people might say a bitch, but Stacy never wanted any of this to happen, and now she is to pay the price of her actions.

She cries before their bed and tells them how guilty she feels for everything, even Janet, but her whimper is cut off by an intelligible mumbling from Dylan.

"Oh my God, Dylan! You are alive!" She yells in joy and wide wonder.

Trying to understand what he says she puts her ear near his mouth.

His final words to his long life friend were "… miserable… whore…"

Before she feels the sting of those words she feels how he bites out her ear with his teeth in a sudden movement.

Her scream tears the silence of the hospital.

She falls on the ground covering her wound, she tries to run but her legs won't answer, the fear paralyzes her body, barely able to crawl away from his bed as he squirms with green foam pouring out of his mouth, his skin turning paler and greener by the second. It was not until she stumbles with Robert's bed that she sees he is the same.

In that very second the two police Officers that were guarding the room bustle in with their guns aiming at Dylan and Robert. It takes them a few seconds to process everything that is happening and react: for the moment they enter the room Dylan has already jumped over Stacy placing his hands inside her mouth to open it with his new found superhuman strength, dislocating her jaw causing her pain as she has never felt, her screaming was like nothing they've ever heard. Carving his growing nails in her tongue and gummy, slowly he begins tearing her mouth and removing half her head bare handed quickly turning off her awful screaming and killing her long life friend. Her body drops on the floor, the blood pouring from it as her heart still beats, creating a wide blood pool on the floor.

Scared they start firing at will taking Robert down when he jumps over them but not killing him. It is until Dylan turns his attention to the officers that one of them shoots him in the head effectively killing him and then shooting at Robert when he got up again.

Everything happened so fast, but for this policemen this moment will last forever.

10:54 AM

Danny and Jazz walk into the hospital guided by Officer Rambeau to the crime scene where there coroners were taking pictures of the bodies stepping in the few blood-free spots on the floor. The gore in the scene was more than anything they had seen so far and it was downright despicable.

In sight of such act, Jazz who always talks and talks would only say a faint "Oh my God…" while covering her mouth.

"Ok, I wanna know what happened here?" Asked Danny.

"Well, that's what we're trying to figure out, we had two men here but they can barely speak. Come here." Officer Rambeau says taking him to the two police officers who shot at Dylan and Robert.

"So you two saw everything?" He asked to two policemen guarding the room.

"Y-Yes…" mumbles one of them.

"Ok… can you tell me what happened?"

"It was so horrible…" the other says.

"So unspeakable… they were there sleeping and then… they were those… green…monsters…"

"And the poor girl… the way it had its hands inside her mouth, the way she screamed… I never heard anything like it."

"How am I ever going to unsee that again?!"

"Ok, so they got traumatized." Danny points out.

"You would also be traumatized if you se what we just saw in the footage." A coroner says handing him touch screen with feed from the room.

"This is second time somebody hands me one of this. Doesn't bother me but it's weird" he says playing the video where he sees how the only survivors of the last ghost-zombie attack die.

"Wow… that was… what just happened?"

"Well, that's what we're trying to figure out and we were expecting you oh-great-expert to tell us what happened." Officer Rambeau say.

"Well I got now idea. They have been in here for days now, right?"

"Yes, almost three weeks."

"And no one noticed anything weird?"

"No. So far they did everything that comatose people does."

"The transition time for a human after a ghozbie bite can be different. Some people transform immediately, some others in hours even a few days, but I've never seen anyone taking this long to transform. It seems like… if someone or something was defying it."

"Ok why and why would they transform now into… those things?" She asks.

"I don't know. I have theory. The victim Stacy, said something that makes me think maybe they can sense feelings like remorse and pain and it works as a beacon for them. Maybe she came here 'cause she felt bad and it triggered the transformation."

"That's your opinion? They killed her because she felt bad?… I'll have to ask to our other experts."

"Oh yeah, eh… who are those other experts you were talking about?"

52 Hexes Diner.

11:14 AM Local Time.

After leaving the hospital Danny and Jazz go looking for these other "experts" Officer Rambeau was talking about, and when he saw their multicolored van he knew right away who they are and his natural reaction, the only thing he could say was an angry "Son of a bitch!"

The two brothers walk into the diner when they find two of the most despicable human beings Danny has ever crossed path with: Andy and Fran from The Groovy Gang and the Scaredy Cat.

Walking towards them from behind, he slaps Andy the skinny blond male member of the gang in the chest and takes a seat in their table.

Exasperatedly he asks "Ok what the hell are you doing here you… you…?"

"What are you doing here?" Asked Jazz calmed, before Danny could finish his question."

"What are we doing here? We're ghost hunters. We're hunting these ghost-zombies just like you are." Fran, the chubby redhead female member of the gang says adjusting her glasses.

"No, no, no… what you are is a complete disgrace for human kind and a constant shame for hunters around the world." Danny says angrily. "So this is how it's gonna be: you are leaving town now, and will never step in, at least not while I'm here working, are we clear?"

"No, we're not. Why would we leave?" The blond male asks. 'Just because you said so? Well I'm not scared of you of big 'ghost hero'" he says lifting his shirt enough to unveil his belly showing a small ecto-gun in his pants

"What am I supposed to be impressed for? For that lady gun in your… let's say pants or that treasure tail you got over there?" Danny asks.

"Look, we're not leaving because you said so." The redhead says.

"Yeah, you are you no who to tell us what to do? You are not our boss, what you gonna do?"

"Last time I saw you I said I will blow your knees, both of you and then I will call PETA to take away you Vegas show cat."

"…You are his big sister, why do you let him do that?" The skinny guy asks to Jazz.

"Well, he hasn't done anything yet, except giving you a fair warning." She answers arm crossed.

"What she said. I've given you enough warnings after all the annoyance you've caused me-"

"That's not-" the read head cuts him off getting cut off herself by him.

"Shut up! Now listen to me you fame-whores, you're leaving this town and this case before somebody else gets hurt because of your incompetence. Why? Because I said so."

"Well, that was lovely, Danny" Jazz says curious to see how would the conversation end up.

"Oh please, we have done more for this ghost-zombie crisis in this last month than you." The blond says.

"Ok, explain yourself." Jazz inquired.

"Can I do it?" Andy asked to his partner Fran.

"Why not both?" The redhead says.

"Amazon me bitches!" They say together with a huge smirk.

Exasperated, Danny takes a deep breathe and says "… I will shoot you… bitches…" answers Danny pointing at them.

"As I thought, this was… you're leaving this case? Great to hear that. Good to see you again Andy," she says tapping him in the back while leaving the table with her brother.

11:35 PM

Back at the old police station Jazz and Danny "Amazon" Andy and Fran and what they saw was beyond anything they can think of their own.

"They wrote a book? You are telling me that the hippie clowns of the Groovy Gang that are completely unaware that we're no longer in the 70's, wrote a _book_? What did they use, a writing machine?" Danny asks in shock.

"Not just any book, is _the_ book about… fighting ghost zombies." Jazz says reading her laptop.

"Let me see that," he says taking her laptop. "I can't believe this, _How to Fight Ghost-zombies: A Guide of prevention or survival in case the Ghost-Zombie Apocalypse arrives_?"

"Yep, that makes it official, if there is a book on how to survive that then it is a real threat now."

"This isn't even any original stuff they just like copy-pasted whatever they liked from the 'G.I.W.'s Ghost fighting guide' and that other 'How to fight zombies' book."

"Yeah, well nobody cares, it's been in the New York Times list of best seller for three weeks now."

"That's it, I gonna catch them all now."

"You say that because of what happened at the hospital or because you don't like the Groovy Gang?"

"I hate those guys! Every time we cross path they would not only get in our way and ruin our hunting but their stupid cat will also bite me in places I shouldn't be bitten by cats and that I didn't even know I have. So yes, it's because I _hate_ them and because of the hospital thing."

"And how are you gonna do that? We barely got time to scour three warehouses."

"Which is why I sent a clone to each of those locations when Officer Monique called in."

"You can split that much? Why didn't you that since the begging?"

"I wanted to spend more time with you."

"Yeah right, you had planned another joke, didn't you?

"Beside the point, none of those places had anything. That leaves us with one option, we'll have to ask people around like we should've done when we first came here, and I bet all my money-"

"What money?"

"-that our unsub… is in the Goth club… Damn it I really need to get a pair sunglasses for this moments. It make them more dramatic"

"…You kidding me? The Goths are the zombie masters? How did you ever jump to that conclusion?"

"You can blame Hollywood, sis'."


	3. Chapter 3

Danny Phantom Unlimited

Chapter 21

Phantoms of the Heart:

Phantom Traveler, Part 3 of 3

Fifth Act: It all comes truth.

Salem, Massachusetts.

Leonidas High School.

September 5, 02:12 PM

Jazz and Danny walk into the School's Goth Club, a dark room with tons of Goth clichéd decoration: a roof painted to resemble the night sky, tombstones and coffins-like furniture and many other things Danny knew Sam would love.

All of the members were the typical black over-wearing and gloomy students, some of them wearing fish nets or trench coats and all of them wearing sunglasses.

"You know who wears sunglasses inside? Blind people… and douchebags." Danny says.

Jazz nodded her head. "Good point."

They both step inside the room and turn on the light much to the Goths dislike. With the light on he sees their plates are full of ultra-recyclo-vegetarian food.

Danny steps inside, his nose getting struck by a powerful odor.

"Patchouli, yeah, mixed with depression… and sweat, so much sweat. Yikes, no wonder you got locked up, I can smell your misery… from meat deprivation." Danny says. "No wonder you never smile."

One of the Goths jumps to talk about the goodness of vegetarianism saying "Meat is-" but Danny cuts him off as soon as he started talking.

"Spare me the lecture buddy. I got a girlfriend like you and she ain't got any progress with me, and she has more leverage tha you. Jazz, give them the talk while I phase around looking for any hiden equipment of magic item."

While Danny searches the room for any hidden piece of equipment or or magic instrument that might be used to control the ghost-zombies, Jazz proceeds to question the non-cooperative Goth students of Salem. After half an hour of questioning they leave empty handed and move to the next club, the science club where all they got was a lot of insults in words not even Jazz could understand and where Danny's final words were "I can understand why you are so miserable, is from the _sex_ deprivation, but trust me it _keeps_ getting better."

"Really? Again the same deprivation joke?" Jazz asks.

"Hey, if it ain't broken don't fix it."

03:04 PM

After questioning every student in Salem's high school that hated the victims enough to kill them getting no clues whatsoever, Danny and Jazz get a call from the police station about the results from the coroner's autopsy. Danny asked about the blood analysis result from both Robert and Dylan which had an impressive low level of iron.

"Does that say anything to you?" Jazz inquired.

"I not sure. I have a theory but… I need more evidence, further analysis… I need a 'living' chomper and a lab to study it."

Jazz roars in laughter. "Ha-ha ha-he, hu-oh… oh, you serious? You mean like… you want to study them on your own… like… mom?"

"Yeah. That could give us an edge, you know? If we could get our hands on one of them and dissect them, we could know how do they work, how and what are they made of? Am not hoping to find a cure but, maybe a better way to fight them, or not having to fight them at all."

"Wow, you… wow… every day you sound more like mom and dad." Jazz points. "I… just keep driving. I'd like the results on my own."

After going to the morgue to see the complete results of the autopsy they head back to the old police station. While Danny was driving Jazz kept digging about the Groovy Gang's book in her laptop.

"You still reading about that crap?" He asks.

"Yep, check this out, remember that I told you about chompers attacking other states?"

"Yeah, you said they were all moving to Salem."

"Well, turns out that they didn't only publish a book about how to fight them, during the last three weeks they've been going to wherever the ghozbies appear and apparently they _do_ manage to get rid of them by using their tactics."

"Yeah right. …And?

"And? Maybe their stuff does work. Maybe they are finally onto something."

"Wait a minute, are you saying that we should give those punkers this case and leave them hunt the ghost-zombies? Are you out of your mind?!"

"I'm not saying we should give up the case, but maybe they could help us."

"…You are off your rocker, is that it? Those posers are a virtual 'who's who' of who can't catch ghosts, and you say we should ask them for advice hunting ghost-zombies?"

"Well, that ain't exactly our department. That is still a new-"

"Let me stop you right there, Jazz. They are ghosts, that's what we hunt, is what we the Fenton do, the family business, we hunt and shoot down green transparent and gooey things that leave ectoplasm wherever they go, saving people. Now this 'new' species is nothing new to us, nothing we haven't seen before, these hybrids-they're not even like me or Dani, not even Plasmius. Maybe they were humans once but not anymore, they're more ghost than human, the only difference between these hybrids and any other ghosts from the Ghost Zone besides their sweet teeth for human flesh is that they're uglier, meaner _and _meaner. Maybe they act like zombies, maybe they were humans before, heck maybe that part is what makes them act like that craving for human flesh to get some humanity back and maybe some else is using them as a weapon or maybe not, but at the end of the day they're still ghosts and we are the Fenton, we don't ask other people for advice on how to hunt them, we teach them."

"Wow, you had that speech prepared for quite some time now, didn't you?

Danny avoids eye contact with his sister saying "…Can't say, won't deny."

"I'd like to go to the girls' room and vomit up breakfast now."

"Besides I don't think they'd be too willing to help us, remember their tiger?"

"What's wrong with it? I mean other than not having balls."

"I put a fish inside Fran's purse when she wasn't looking," explained with a grin.

"Danny why did you do that? I had already put cat pheromone on Andy's vest."

"Cat's pheromone? Do I wanna know?" He laughs.

"No."

The Fenton brothers laugh at their devilries done to the obnoxious Groovy Gang putting their Scaredy Cat against them while these are chased out of their van by this. Andy and Fran lean on the door frightened for how their usually tame and coward white tiger pounces over them on sight for no apparent reason.

"Tinkers, what the heck is wrong with him now?" Andy asked with his hand in his racing heart.

"Aaggh, I think I know. Somebody put a dead fish in my purse-I thought we had this conversation before, no more prank wars!" Fran sounded raging against her teammate. "They always escalate and get our cat against us."

"Hey don't look at me, I didn't do that."

"Then who… Fentons! They couldn't take the fact that we're better at handling this crisis than them and tried to put our cat against us."

"Are you sure? Isn't that jumping to conclusions?"

"Beside the point, we should get to work. This town needs our help, not the Fentons' help."

"I-I don't know, maybe… we should leave this case to them."

"SAY WHAT?!"

"Franny, think about it, the last three cases we got lucky, they all either exploded when we lured out of town or were to weak to actually do anything, but what if they don't explode this time? What if they what if they actually fight back?"

"Andy, don't be so ludicrous, we've read every book about fighting zombies and we have been hunting ghosts our entire lives. The math is just perfect."

"They've fought bigger monsters."

"But they don't know as much about zombies as we do. Or as much about ghosts. When the ghsot-zombies appear who they're gonna call? Groovy Gang and the Scaredy Cat."

"Yes… I guess you're right. Though I think we need a better name for our cat."

Former police station used as H.Q. by the Team Fenton.

03:56 PM

Jazz walks in soaked in chocolate milk followed by Danny who was roaring in laughter by his latest prank, floating behind her.

"Oh man, I can believe it worked." He laughed.

"How could you do that? How could you even change all the water in the RV's shower for chocolate milk?"

"I don't know. Chocolate milk bending?"

"I said this was going to end bad Danny and you earned-and I did warn you before it all started, now you'll see the consequences and I'll laugh last," she fumed pointing at him.

"Really? It doesn't look like that. But is really sweet of you to think that way," says putting his arm around her shoulder and kissing his sister's cheek. "Though in my defense you gave me the idea this morning when I told you to shower."

"Sir, there is an incoming call from Officer Rambeau, it seems urgent."

"_Reroute it to my phone. I'll put her on speaker_," he answers with his thought, taking his phone out. "Shhh, we got a phone call form Monica."

"Danny! Come to the downtown now! There is a swarm of ghost-zombies attacking people and-!"

"Oh my god."

"Ok, you take, a shower, I'm going ghost to save the day," said Danny as he transforms.

"But-" before she could argue, Danny vanishes. "Damn it Danny, stop doing that!"

03:12 PM

Danny appears in the sky above Salem's downtown where Officer Rambeau says the ghost-zombies are attacking people.

He hurls at them with ease unsheathing his arm-swords, lunging between them and riving them in half striking their torsos with his energy charged blades. The split bodies fall on the road with their green insides spreading all over the place as more and more ghost-zombies appear focusing their attention on Danny and the more they come, the more savage he fights them. The ghost-zombies go ghost transforming into even more hideous monsters.

The people form Salem runs away sacred of them, but some are outrun by those ghost-zombies that didn't attack Danny. For some of them the ghost-zombies are too many to run away from and as Danny keeps smiting them he soon realizes they have become too much for him as well. This make him angry, his anger makes his power bubble up, he is coveted by this growing and overwhelming feeling, he wants to give into that rage, let his power boil up, burn them with hate but he remembers for his own safety and health he can't allow himself such pleasant weakness and for a second he hesitates. That split of a second was all the ghost-zombies needed to strike back and a giant green fist delivers the blow right in Danny's face with devastating force.

The neural system-linked suit blocks the pain receptors of its user, Danny, saving him from a pain that easily reaches "10 Worst Possible" on the built in pain scale. Its healing functions working with Danny's healing powers help him to recover much faster than he could without it quickly stopping the bleeding of his nose and mouth and getting him back on track. Without his ghost-hunting battle suit he would have been knocked out and gone human with that blow, Lucky me, he thinks.

Quickly, Danny phases into the ground escaping from the foot of a hulking ghost-zombie aiming to trample his head only to phase back up shooting a large streaming green ghost ray with power enough to scorch the hulking ghost-zombie to its bones, the remains fall steaming green.

He faces the horde of ghost-zombies, all of them in their ghost form with the myriad pf shapes and sizes of actual ghosts from the Ghost Zone, some of them sill resembling to a zombie only but greener if not uglier, with fangs and shreds of skin falling off, others with more a monstrous appearance as most ghosts tend to look like.

He pulls out all of his claws and blades, his guillotine blades (or lateral blades as the manual calls them), his energy push-blades, his knee-pads spikes and his hidden shoe knives. "Gas, what do you think I should dance?"

"You're facing a though crowd here sir, I'd recommend you try some Krav Maga rough them up first. You know what that is don't you?"

"Sam told me about it, she wanted to try some but she didn't have stomach for it, she doesn't have too much of a stomach really. Me on the other, I loved it just didn't have the time to learn," he admited.

"Then a mastery of Kravmaga for the, uh, would it be right to say gentleman? No it wouldn't."

In half a second the suit downloads in Danny's brain and body all the knowledge, training and techniques of Krav Maga, the Israeli fighting style used for soldiers in the battle field, a very aggressive fighting style that worked perfectly against a large number of attackers like Danny's facing now.

The first principle of the Krav Maga is to avoid confrontation, this he couldn't do, and when that is not an option he must engage and eliminate the threat in the shortest and most direct way possible striking with a fair amount of force, this he clould do rather eagerly and in this case that meant all his force. With the abilities and experience, of a real Krav Maga fighter Danny jumps and strikes first with his spiky knee pad in the face of the largest ghost-zombie pining through its brain.

Defending himself with a hand-to-hand combat technique designed to neutralize opponents swiftly and decisively targeting the most vulnerable areas felt somehow fitting and worked perfectly against this kind of enemies, the kind he shouldn't show any mercy at all.

The suit's tactical analysis software pointed out the different weak points in the different ghost-zombies, all of them with an anatomy of their own, but all of them with common weaknesses: the knees, the groins and the head. These he would strike eagerly with his fists, claws and blades.

Face to face with a chomper three times his size with arms at least twice larger as his and bulkier than Dash, he jumps and uses a fish hooking attack, placing his clawed fingers within its already large and dislocated open mouth tearing it apart with ease spreading a green ghost-blood shed around him and on himself, then finishing off the monster by stabbing its head with his energy push blades.

Each monster he attacked was over in a matter of seconds, but as fast as he could smite them, it wasn't enough to diminish their number.

"Gas, how many of them are. Left?"

"I haven't displayed the threat counter for a reason sir, and it's for your own health."

"Oh great. Just that bad? What does the tactical analysis program says?"

"It says…-"

"-dance?" They both asks together.

"Like-like in-"

"That ought to be a glitch sir. I'll send a report to Mr. M requesting for an upgrade to solve this problem."

Danny jumps over the head of another oversized ghost-zombie with so-very nimble movements, holding its head and them blowing it with a white ghost ray from both hands. "You know it would be a lot easier if I could just… let things go like I did with the Hellhounds," he points out.

"It sure would sir. It would also be a good way to ruin _me_ in the process thus becoming a living bomb."

"…right."

"Or there is the other side in which you lose all your powers and is like going back to season one."

Graciously, he swings and ducks the attacks of ten ghost-zombies cutting them in half or striking their head with his knees and elbows. "Right… don't you mean going back to score one?"

"That too, sir."

"Yeah but-is that… is it me or some one is playing music?" He asks listening a faint melody on the distance.

"I can hear it too sir. And it appears they can too, also they seem to have cease their attacks."

"Wait, that voice, you don't think it's-"

"I think it is her. And I think they will-"

"Oh God, I hope no."

Some of the ghost-zombie stop moving and in that moment Danny begins to feel a striking pain in his chest, the bone splinter near his heart was aching. A piercing pain so strong he was lucky it took this long. Now he was panting and all he could feel could feel was the splinters in his lunges piercing. In this moment of weakness the ghost-zombies strike back hitting harder than before.

But the worst… the worst part was yet to come. 

Sixth Act: Stand by my side.

Salem, Massachusetts

Thirty minutes ago.

After taming their docile and cowardly cat, The Groovy Gang claims their van back minutes before hearing about the new ghost-zombies attack.

"You heard that Andy? We must prepare ourselves. Set the equipment." Fran says.

Now.

The Groovy Gang and the Scaredy Cat arrives to the were Danny fights the ghost-zombies, armed with a plan they have used before and proved successful. A plan not even Danny's master mind could conceive.

Using the most powerful weapon of all they manage to tame and freeze the ghost-zombies, this weapon is the power of dance for now, as then, this simple truth: all zombies are dancers by nature.  
And so, they dance in perfect sync a choreography they've never danced before not even as humans demonstrating their supernatural dance skills while Danny stares in awe and shock unable to understand what is happening.

"Ok, I guess that was not a glitch after all. Looks like the program was right when saying 'Dance' to fight the ghost-zombies just like-"

"Don't. Say. A word."

Chief Robert M. St. Pierre Police Headquarter, Salem, Massachusetts.

05:45 PM

Hours after the ghost-zombie attack which ended with them dancing until their nanites ran out of energy…

"Remarkable! You managed to get rid of those foul creatures by… dancing!" Says Chief Rick Grimes congratulating the Groovy Gang.

"Yes we did, sir. Thank you very much." Fran says.

"How did you that?" He asks.

"Well sir if you read our book 'How to fight Ghost-Zombies', you'll see that as all zombies do, they have a unique weakness and is that they all love to dance." Fran explains.

"Oh is that so?" Danny asked angrily busting into the office, slamming the door against the wall.

"Yeah well, you just saw it worked." Andy says.

"What I saw was the biggest display of stupidity ever since the 80's. And I've been there plenty of times!"

"You are just jealous because we saved the city and your butt today," Fran says.

"Oh-ho, right. Silly me. What was I thinking? I completely forgot to thank you for, what? Saving my life by Dancing with the Abominations?! What was I thinking. Oh yeah, what the hell was that?!"

"That is efficiency." Andy answers.

"Something you should learn."

"Yeah, by the two who that put _who_ in 'who can't catch a ghost'. You might be able to fool them but you ain't fooling me."

"Fool? You think that we are, like, controlling them or something? That's ridiculous," Fran points out."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. It takes brain to control brainless creatures. Yet, it's funny that you mention that since I never brought that up, don't you think?"

"Enough! These two managed to save the city -without violence- stopping another tragedy li-" Chief Rick says.

"You're right, that's enough. Since you are so fancy with them and how they managed to dance the ghozbies to death, then maybe they should lead this investigation. Maybe they can make the responsible for all these crimes dance out to the police station and confess."

"Oh please. The only responsible for the atrocities of today are those ecto-zombies and they have already died-" Fran says getting cut off by Danny.

"Then I guess there is nothing else here for me to do here," he says glowering at everyone in the Chief's office. "And since the so called experts think there is nothing else to do here, then I guess I can finally leave this miserable town," says slamming the door behind him and flying out of the station in his human self.

"Sir are you all right, you seem… agitated." Gasper asks while Danny flies to the old police station.

"Agitated? I'm mad! Explain to me how does an entire swarm of chompers gets control with music?!"

"Ember did it."

"Ember is different. Ember has powers."

While flying he feels again that piercing pain in his chest around his heart.

"Well, maybe they _can_ be control by music. Remember what Jazz said, there is still much we don't know about them."

"Yeah, but 'all zombies loveto dance?'"

Danny lands in a convenience store taking a bottle of water to swallow his pills to ease the increasing pain in his chest. The Vicodin soon begins to have effect on him dwindling his pain and anger.

"You know sir sir, even in your human form your healing factor will burn the drugs out of your system much faster than usual."

"…You think I overreacted back there?" Asks while paying the store manager and walking out of the store.

"Totally, sir. You had a real child's tantrum."

Danny sighs. "That's what I thought… I just. Aaaarrrgghh. I can deal with the fact that someone else saves me… sometimes. But them! Using music to make the ghozbies dance? What the hell?"

"It's ok sir, just let it all out. Just don't do it in your ghost form, it seems the bone splinters cause the more damage when you go ghost than when you're human."

"Yeah well I won't have to. If they think they can handle this, that this case is over. I'm out, pack up your stuff, we're going back home tonight."

06:26 PM

Danny flies into the police station looking for his sister Jazz and explains her everything that happened.

"We're leaving?! But-but what happened with all those things you said in the car about-"

"Forget it. The case is over! And no, this is not a joke. Pack up your stuff we're leaving right now."

08:04 PM

Danny drives the Fenton RV outside of Salem still mad for what just happened that afternoon.

"I can't believe this. First-"

"Shut up! I don't want to talk about it."

"Don't you tell me to shut up!"

"I said I don't want to talk about it. Just forget it. Let's pretend it didn't happen."

"Well I can't do that. Danny we didn't even solve half the case," she points out.

"Well why don't we let that to the meddling kids?! They handled the ghozbie swarm pretty well when all I did was getting my butt kicked."

"So that's it? Things get hard, things get rough and you just quit it, eh? Since when do you do that?"

"I don't."

"What?"

"I'm not runing away, I'm stepping back to see the whole picture."

"But you said-"

"I know what Isaid, that was a diversion."

"...I don't understand."

"Of course you don't. Try to see thing this way: the victims, they all loved parties. Most of them were jocks and cheerleaders. The typical horror film victims who get slashed while having sex except this time there is no final girl and the only survivor are left in coma. All the attacks happened so suddenly with no warning. They just appear, eat and leave. You'd believe there would be a connection on the victims other than being jerks and bitches, right?"

"…Yes, but try to keep it clean."

"But, let's stop thinking a cop, let's think as murder that can control the chompers, I could finally take on people who hurt me, but tall that people? And then they all began to yank people from town to town creating chaos."

"So? Not all murders have logic, some of them are just ramdom."

"Yeah, but then again, whoever stops that chaos would be a hero, and who do we know shows up and makes them dance to their second death, thus earning the title of hero? The Groovy Gang. They send monsters to create chaos, then they stop it and pose as heroes and get to the top of New York's best sellers. And of course they didn't think somebody else knews they can be controlled."

"How did you jump to that conclusion?"

"No need to praise me, I'm just a man, not Superman."

"Ok... let's assume they are behind all this, how are they doing it?"

"Maybe one of the chompers followed them home and they kept it, then they experimented on it until they got it to do what they wanted. Probably they use them as their butlers too."

"Ghost-Zombie butlers? Really?"

"What? They can't complain about their live sucking sucking jobs 'cause as ghosts and zombies they ain't got any."

"That aside… to hide a swarm like that-"

"You only got to put them in invisible and tell them to stay away until is dinner time."

"There is one more thing we're forgetting," she points out. "The guys at the hospital."

"Way ahead of you sis', remeber they had almost 0 iron in their blood? Well I checkedall the hospital records from all the cities the chompers attacked and were saved byt the Groovy Gang. There was at least one in each case. The last town before Salem had actually three survivors, and all of them comatose since the attack. But what really unettles me is that all of them have the same iron level in their blood system which is alarmingly close to zero."

"But what does that mean?"

"My theory, which I had sice our little hunt the morning before we left, is that this nanites work asa viru, and to reproduce themselves they use the iron in our blood to create more nanites and spread airborne."

"Create more nanobots? What for?"

"So they can infect anyone who is near them, really I thought you were the smart one."

"If that was the case, everyone in the hospital could be infected."

"And all they need is the signal to be activated."

"Wait, then what are we doing here?"

"I'm putting you at a safe distance,"

"What?!"

"You're gonna stay here. I should have never brought you to this case in the first place. The ghost-zombies are to dangerous for you."

"But-"

"Your are not coming, you can get hurt. You're my sister and I'm supposed to look after you. That's what I do, watch ove my old pain-in-the ass sister"

"Danny that's cute from you that you try to protect me like that but I'm as bit as hunter as you are. I can take care of myself and-" before she could finish her sentence Danny vanishes without any warning. "DAMN IT DANNY, STOP DOING THAT DICK MOVEMENT ON ME! Is not fun anymore!"

Seventh Act: Outbreak.

Salem's Hospital.

08:23 PM

Danny appears in the middle of the hospital, and as he feared, almost all of the patients were infected with the ghost-zombie nanites and now he finds himself surrounded by "chompers" hurling at him with their mouths wide open with large fangs and longs sprawling forked tongues, growling and hissing.

Completely calm, he bows down pressing a button in his wristband touch-screen to pull out his mechanical spider legs slashing the heads of all the ghost-zombies running at him, pining them through their mouths.

"Gas, call the police station, the Chief, Monica, anyone! Now!"

"On it sir, but… you should go outside."

"What?! Why?"

Danny floats out of the hospital only to realize things were much worse than he even imagined. "Wow… good thing I didn't bring Jazz here."

Hundreds ghost-zombies were running amok on the streets chomping people.

Unsheathing his arm-swords he jumps in and severs six ghost-zombies chasing a group of teenagers.

He keeps severing chompers in the street as they chase humans trying to remain unexalted and puts the few citizens he saves on top of the hospital, hoping it be far enough from their reach and locks them inside a force field made with portable cubic ghost-shields generators, similar to those of the G.I.W., stored in his utility belt. "Boy, this thing really comes in handy. How could I live all those years without one of this?"

"Sir, no one is picking up at the police station."

"God-freaking-damn it!"

He teleports himself back to the police station leaving six clones behind to keep fighting. Inside the station everything was a complete chaos, tables were upside down, gore and ectoplasm was spread all over the walls and the floor, along with human and ghost-zombie bodies, all of them either eviscerated or with their heads blown off and dismembered.

"Gas, search for any human life form, they can't be all dead."

"Done, there are four human life forms in the building, three hiding in the morgue -God knows why would they hide there- and one right behind you."

"What?" He quickly turns around with his fists charged ready to open fire only to face a shining ecto-gun pointing right between his eyes held by a beautiful and slender redhead. "Jazz, what the hell are you doing in here? I told you to stay put in the RV."

"And let you get all the fun? No-uh, besides I am your big sister, I'm the one supposed to look after _you_. These things are too dangerous and I don't want you to get hurt."

"That's why you keep pointing your ecto-gun at my face?"

"Sorry." Jazz says putting her gun back in her holster.

"How did you get here so fast anyway?"

"Dad taught me how to drive, what do you think?"

"I think you are as stubborn as a Fenton."

"Yes, we sure are."

The two sibling stare at each other for a few seconds before Chief Rick shows up on the door roaring while running at them, green skinned. The head of the police department was turned into a ghost-zombie, and as he runs to eat Danny and Jazz, that head gets blown off by Officer Monique standing at the door severely wounded and fainting.

Twenty minutes later she wakes up in a cell with Jazz and Danny and explains them what happened after they left: they got a call from the hospital saying almost every patient was a ghost-zombie and that a group of them showed up at the station and took Andy and Fran away not without biting and mauling her partners infecting almost everyone. The first one to get bitten was Chief Rick.

"Oh my God… I can't believe this… I-I shot the Sheriff?"

"...Uh, but you didn't shoot the Deputy," Danny laughs with a smirk getting a serious look from Jazz.

"Oh my God, Kevin! My son! He must be scared to d-I have to go look for him! Please take me to my home!" She asks Danny.

Without a second thought Danny flies Officer Monique to her home while Jazz interrogates the other two Officers left.

They find the front door broken and the inside had sings of struggle, in the living room there were three ghost-zombie bodies with holes in their head.

"That's good. It means they weren't eaten, right? Where could they go?"

"The city is a complete chaos so they must be in our panic room upstairs," Monique explains them.

Danny floats with her up stairs and much to Monique's dismay, her husband was laying dead on the closed door surrounded by other two dead ghost-zombies. His head was blown off and his body had bite marks.

"He must have shot himself when got bitten," Danny theorizes. "I.. I am so sorry."

Monique holds her tears. "Take me inside. My son must be in there waiting for me. He must be scared."

Danny phases with Monique into her panic room where her eight years old kid sits crouched in a corner making strange noises.

"Kevin," she whispers.

Before she could get any close to her son, Danny takes her by the shoulder. "Hold on, there is something weird about him."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I... see something that is not right."

And indeed, his lenses showed him something was wrong with little Kevin, but he had to see it with his own eyes. "Let me go first," says retracting his cowl.

As he leans closer to Kevin, he gets a chilling sensation in his stomach.

"Kevin… it's me, Danny Phantom. Your mom told me you are a big fan of mine."

The kid answers with nothing but noises.

"Come on, boy. Why don't you come here with me and your mom, I sign you an autograph, would you like that?"

Slowly, kevin turns around to stare at Danny with two big red glowing eyes.

His skin was green and his teeth were jagged, poor little Kevin was a ghost-zombie.

Ever since Danny saved the world, little Kevin Rambeau wanted to be like him, a half-ghost, a hero like him and now he was a halfa, but poor child, nothing human was on the other half, nothing but a monster that was now trying to eat his hero's face.

Officer Monique Rambeau's house.

09:04 PM

In the living room, Danny and Monique are engaged in the bitter argument about the future of her son.

"We need to talk about Kevin."

"Please, please I beg you… tell me there is a cure for… this," she asks Danny blatantly.

"…I… I'm sorry but there isn't. The truth about ghost-zombies is… they're all crap. There is no cure for them. The only way to deal with them is by…" Danny was unable to say those words, he could barely speak there was no way he could say that to a mother in pain. That was a limit he didn't want and couldn't cross.

"The only way is what? What is it?"

Danny takes a deep breathe mustering the courage to say the words "The only way to deal with them is... by blowing their heads or beheading them…" Monique stares at him gasping in awe covering her mouth, "Even if their ghost half is torn apart, the human side is still left a zombie or with terrible celular damamge and would never make it past the twenty four hours, and there is no way to fix that."

"But…"

"Even worst, the nanites in his bloodstream, they come with a very short life battery, and when they expire… they… usually explode."

"You are saying that…"

"I'm afraid so."

"I… I can't do that," she cries. Hearing those words, Monique knew what he had to do, and it was not pretty.

"… I… I'll do it…"

He takes Kevin to the kitchen while his mother sits crying, taking her gun with him. He couldn't believe what he had to do.

When Technus declared the war on the human world, when he first saw his ghost-zombies he knew things were bound to be… messy, and this war would take him down on a dark path, limits would be crossed by both sides, but never he thought it would come this far, but what he hated the most was that this was not even the begining for the real war was still to come.

"I really wish I didn't have to do this, Kevin."

The blast of the gun is heard from kitchen in the living room where a mother cries the death of her entire family in one night.

Eitght Act: Conclusion

Police Station.

09:23 PM

Danny floats into the morgue looking for Jazz.

"Danny what happened? Where is Monique?"

"I… left her at home with her family. That's where she need to be right now."

"I guess you're right but… but why the long face?"

"Nothing. What did you learn from them?"

"Well, from all their gibberish I could set up a time line. Around 8:15 they got a call from the hospital, that's when everything went S.N.A.F.U."

"S.N.A.F.U.? What are you? A Navy Seal?" He breaks in.

She glares. "All patients had seizures, they started to turn green and then they transformed into big mean ghosts. About five minutes later they all came here, they didn't even got to send the Groovy Gang when a swarm of ghozbies showed up and took them away before they could dance. So what do you think?"

"I don't know, a classic case where the monster turns against its creator? Maybe they got smart enought to get payback or maybe they planned to make a big move savinga city twice in a day but it backfired."

"Where do you think they took them?"

"Ok, let's stop thinking as a cop, let's think a ghost-zombie. If had a grudge against a pair of dimwits who made me and my brothers dance, where would I take them?"

"Where indeed?"

09:26 PM

"Danny, this is a bad idea," Jazz says walking behind him in the darlness holding a flashlight.

"Hey, it was your idea, you're the one who said dance club."

"It was a joke! A very… bad joke. God, your influence is poisonus."

"Yeah, well it was a bad joke/good idea. Besides it's the best we got."

"How fitting the only dance club was having a 70's themed week."

"Nah, I preffer the 80's or the 90's," he says enlightening the hallway, "you know, any age with loudly music."

"Speaking of which… since when do you listen to Bob Marley?-And I want a straight answer this time."

"I was looking for new music to play in my head while I'm fighting, you know kind like my own soundtrack, and Val borrowed me some of hers."

"Hmm, you and Val seem to be getting too well lately, a lot if you ask me. How does Sam feel about that?"

"What? Why would Sam have any saying on who do I get to get along with? She's not my wife. Besides, is not like I would listen to her. I came to learn is better for my health if I don't. This powers; all her fault."

"Just saying, you and Val had a thing going on back in the days, and now that Sam is your girlfriend… She is the jealous type, you know? So she might get a little up set to see you fancing with your only ex… again."

"Since when do you care about my love life?"

"I am just doing my job. I'm watching out for my little bro, I don't wanna see you become the kind of jerk who cheats on his girlfriend instead of just being the kind of jerk that pisses his friends off."

"Hey, that's not being a jerk, I just show you my love by contrasting it with how much I can make you guys hate me."

Jazz stares at him mulling his words. "Do you even think before you think?"

"…just keep walking."

"Said Johnnie Walker."

"You say that like if I had a flask in my pockets all the time."

"Right, I forgot… you only do that on weekends," says sarcastically.

"Exactly… not like that's any of your business."

"For the record I actually like Valerie better than Sam. She can be a bit of a hypocrite sometimes. And way too bossy."

Danny nods his head agreeing with his sister. "No need to tell me."

"Wait, you're not gonna argue that I insulted your girlfriend? The woman you love."

"…Well, that's a stretch. You can't really call it an insult if it's a description."

"I thought-wow… So… you're saying your not happy with Sam?"

"I'm not saying that, I love her. I'm just saying that she is not… perfect. I never thought she was, she has her flaws as we all do, and is not like she would even try to change no matter how many times she gets me in trouble."

"Sounds to me like you guys need some counseling. You know, before things get out of control."

"What do you care anayway?!"

"I'm telling you, realtionships can be complicated and sometimes-"

"And you thought that you, that who hasn't had a boyfriend since ever, could give us relationships advices? Well if that doesn't spell irony, then-" their conversation gets interrupted by his ghost sense breaking in, indicating the presence of ghost zombies in the area. "I'm going ghost!" Said preparing to battle, illuminating the area with the intense white light from his suit. "Only two? Not sure if a relief or a downer," says seeing how many ghost-zombies were there.

In that moment every light in the dance floor gets turned on. The whole place enlighten with multiple colored lights and the ghost-zombies were standing in the middle of the dance floor.

"Oh god, these are my two favorite letters: e-z," states with a smug. "You can sit here, I don't need your hekp."

Danny claims with utmost confidence, if not arrogance, a second before the ghost-zombies go ghost revealing their most dreadful side.

Ten foot monsters with large muscles and razor sharp claws and fangs, with spiked tongues and long hair made of spines.

"On the other hand… a little help might come in handy. Jazz?"

"Well, these are you two favorite letters, right? You should tell them that," utters sarcastically.

"…you can be really mean sometimes."

"As I said, your influence is poisonus."

"Yeah, whatever. Never said I wanted or needed your help in the first place." Danny said bustling into the dance floor ready to fight, charging his energy blades

"I came here so I can take care of you. Watch over my little pain-in-the ass brother is what I do."

"Well guess what? I am not a little kid anymore," he says slaying the hand of the ogre-looking ghost-zombies. "For crying out loud! In just three months I'll be old enough to join the army."

"Wait, you're joining the army?"

Danny jumps avoiding the fists of the ghost-zombies and swings in the air between them with astonishing nimble movements cutting their left eyes with his arm-swords.

"That's not the point. What's the point? This is the point: I don't need you to babysit me anymore and I don't need your help." He states vim. "I'm a grown man and I can perfectly take care of my own without you-"

Danny argues about his sister meedling, always looking out for him as if he was still a child claming she didn't have to, but getting smacked in the face by a ghost-zombie does little to prove his point.

"Why, you're doing great on your own, I think you got them tired... of punching your face. You've clearly proven me that you don't need me."

"You know what? You are right, I don't." Says moving his legs in circle around his body without touching the ground, and then spining on one palm supporting his weight with his legs wide open using his shoes' hiden blades to keep the ghost-zombies at distance.

"Hey, that is break dance, that didn't exist until the 80's," Jazz points out.

"Who cares?"

He springs up back on his feet and stabs ghost-zombies in the torso getting his hands stuck inside them. They quickly tun their stomachs into large mouths with fangs and forked tongues to fire a devastating green ghost ray at point-blank range each one, sending Danny back to where Jazz was sitting.

"Are you gonna sit there or are you going to help me?"

"Well you told me to sit her because you didn't need me. Now unless I hear someone saying the words…"

"Forget it!"

Danny rushes into the dance floor again blocking the blows of his opponents with his swords and even, moving swiftly around them.

"Not the words I was waiting for!"

The ghost-zombies might had the upper hand in the strength and resistance department, but he was certain of something, he had the upper hand in speed and agility and he was going to use that on his favor.

With quick movements he jabs them using his blades to deliver deadlier blows gashing throug their think and rottid flesh, but the beasts won't fall down, instead their pain makes them angrier and stronger and once again he is flinged onto the wall where Jazz was sitting with a surprinsingly quick blow.

"All right... for whatever it's worth... would help me?"

"Sure, but I need you to say it first."

"You really gonna waste my time on that?!"

"Ok, I think you learned your lesson," she says standing up for her little brother.

Full of spite, she rolls her right sleeve up unveiling a silver bracelet she had worn ever since she left home hidden beneath. This piece of jewelry was not a fancy adornment, when looked closely you can see it has the silver glimmering of something concocted by the Fenton.

This little piece of technology is one of their most dangerous inventions, as it is a re-invention of their most powerful weapon so far: the Ecto-Skeleton.

When "holstered" it resembles a heavy jewel encrusted bracelet, and whereas it didn't enhance her abilities one-hundred folds but ten folds instead, it was arguably one of the most powerful instrument a Fenton ever made, even more so since it didn't have the same flaws of the original design.

Presing the two knobs on side of the green jewel-like piece, the bracelet begins to release a green gleam on its joint lines which grows into a stream of green light that covers her, generating a body-hugginga armor in less than a second.

"Well if this isn't a declaration that we're a team of teenagers with attitude, I don't know what it is. Is that-?"

"The portable Ecto-Skeleton prototype mom and dad've been working on? Yes."

"And they gave it to you?"

"Dah. I'm more responsible than you, so what do you think?"

Now what really happened was…

"Jazz, I do not want you to take this wear-around Ecto-Skeleton," Maddie shouts out in the lab. "It might be functional now, but it's still a prototype and it needs more testing and if you ruin this prototype I'll blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah, BLAH BLAH BLAH!" 

"She said something about being carefull with it when I take it out," Jazz said to Danny. "Now, lets wipe this chompers ass right now!" 


	4. Phantom Traveler Breakout Conclusion OS

**Writter's note**: this story is the conclusion to the Phantom Traveler story arc and is treated as a One Shot. Chapter 19-21 are needed to understand this one shot.

Danny Phantom Unlimited

Phantom Traveler: Breakout Conclusion

Ninth Act: Conclusion, Part 2

Inside the dance club in which the ghost-zombies keep their oppressors and choreographers, the Groovy Gang, imprisoned Danny Phantom and his sister Jazz Fenton, in armor of high-tech ammunition, fight back-to-back against a duo of ogre-looking ghost-zombies. Her armor, is a smaller, upgraded, body-tight and portable version of the Ecto-Skeleton that enhances her capabilities ten-folds, rather than a hundred-folds and uses bloodstream nanobots to control her breathing and heart rate, eliminating the lethal fatigue caused by the original having no drawback on her.

Despite the small battle chassis this battle suit grants her the best defense against ghosts attacks making her capable of withstanding a full-blown attack from the ghost-zombie she's fighting right in the chest. The ghost-zombie strikes with all his might, the creature is almost as strong as Danny himself and the blow would have douse her all over the wall, but Jazz is protected by a malleable crystalline ceramic armor interlaced with nano-fibers of carbon and titanium.  
She takes the punch without even flinch, throwing a smug grin at her prey through her visor instead, her armor made her invulnerable. But its upgrades are more than just an enhanced endoskeleton, this Ecto-Skeleton's best feature was not its protective capabilities, but clearly the offensive ones.

Fashioned with a long pair of blades protruding all along her forearms, similar to Danny's guillotine's blades, this model was made to deliver deadly strikes to severely maim ghosts. This blades could also be reshaped or replaced by any other weapon due to its "Malleable Multi-Weapon Function." Nevertheless, this are short-range weapons, and Jazz is personally more fond of long-range weapons with actual firepower such as the suit's Plasma Cannon she shapes her right hand into.

Rising her cannon with an electric purple aura forming and intensifying around it as it charges, she fires a devastating burst of pure ecto-energy, the size of her head. The blast should be strong enough to shatter a GIW tank to pieces, yet the ghost-zombie proves to be far more durable than them, as it only scorched its chest and face and barely flings him near the edge of the dance floor.

Entering in a state of feral/berserker rage, it pounces at her elongating its nails as claws and firing a barrage of spikes from its long, filthy and fluffy hair but Jazz wasn't worried about it. With superhuman reflexes and usual fast thinking she shapes a shield from both arms enhanced with a pulse of green ghost-energy around it that deflects the spikes and the blows from the ogre-like chomper. Angrier at her, it roars a powerful ghost ray at point-blank range but Jazz stands unaffected, even laughing at it.

With her firepower and resilience Jazz is practically unstoppable on the battlefield, capable of sustaining deadly amounts of damage with little to no effect while delivering the same or even more damage to her attacker and poor bastard, she was bound to cause him pain.

Swinging her right leg swiftly, she kicks its head with the blade tip rising up over her boot and slashes its shoulder with her boot's blade-heel. Shaking her hands she pulls out two silver batons from her wrists compartments and generates a green ghost-energy saber on her left hand and a bouble saber on her righ hand with spiked guard earch one. Swinging her sabers dexterously with flowing swift and smooth movements outspeeding the ghost-zombie, it was almost as if the monster was fighting a second Danny who was fighting with his arm-swords and push energy blades. Needless to say, he exceled in both strenght and speed, over the gost-zombie he was fighting, yet it doesn't mean it wouldn't resist his attacks.

In response to their weapons the ghost-zombies craft weapons of their own from their very own ghostly rotten flesh, generating a long wihp-like tentacle with a spiked striking head from their forearms, using them as flails, swinging them all around the place. The two brothers move to their left in perfect sync letting the ghost-zombies hit themselves in he face with their own weapons but this wouldn't hold them off, instead they whiplash even harder breaking the dance floor in half.

Danny and Jazz barely avoid their attack zipping along the surface releasing a small amount of energy compressed from their feet, reaching the edge of the sundered dance floor leaving green skid marks.

Sabers swinging, whips cracking, blood flowing. The direst of dances was being danced and.

Danny on his side, can't get his mind out of one disturbing fact.

"You know what I just realized?" Asks Danny to his sister as he dodges the fists of his opponent. "Your armor is a robot copy of the Witchblade."

"What?! No, is not!" She utters kicking the ghost-zombie in the head a second time with devastating force. The beast had the upper hand in strength but it could posibly not dodge her.

With his claws Danny slashes the arm of his ghost-zombie scraping into the bone unleashing a sheath of green ghost-blood all over the dance floor as he replies "Oh really? How does it look when is not activated?"

"Like a… bracelet with a big jewel. But that doesn't mean anything!"

"Aha. Well let's see: it gives you superhuman strength, you can fire energy blasts…"

"When shaping it into a very large Plasma Cannon," she cuts him off.

"…it comes with swords your arms," he points out as she swings her right hand using her arm's swing blade to slay her ghost-zombie in half, "and it comes with blades in places where there shouldn't be any blades. And let's not forget about the fact that, and this is half the reason why we're fighting back-to-back, this armor if drawn in a comic or a cartoon it would make a helluva fanservice shot."

Indeed, the way the armor covered her lean and athletic body made her look more voluptuous and centerfold giving her that impossible hourglass-figure that drives any man crazy, a side effect of its default female design with almost excessive chest armor plating, and her knee-high metal boots with heels made her already long legs look even longer and sexier and her behind

…Ok, it looks like a fruit hanging way too low even for this writer.

Is then when she realizes. "Oh my God, this is a copy of the Witchblade," exclaims with her eyes wide open.

"See. What did I tell you?"

Channeling his energy through his arm-swords, Danny dlivers the final blow cutting in half his ghost-zombie with enough energy to burn the remains. It was a clean death with no ghost blood or entrails left to be spread, or at least it was on his side, Jazz on the other side made a bloody mess spreading the ectoplasm and insides of the ghost-zombie she fought all over the dance floor and even her blades were still dripping its blood.

"So, can you sense any other inside?" She inquires.

"No," he answers. "But I can sense two humans in the basement."

"Wait, you can sense humans too?"

"Well, that's an understanding. More like I can smell their weed from here." Danny lied, what he didn't want to say was I used the scanner of my suit of unknown origin to look for any human life form in the place.

Jazz glares at him retracting her armor.

"Come on," says taking her by the hand gently, phasing both into the basement.

Down there, they find Fran tied up and gagged to a pipeline.

"This is a lousy ass trap. Am I supposed to believe she tied herself to the pipes?" Asks as he becomes intangible while Andy comes at him from behind with a knife running pass through him. "So help me understand, you used the chompers to build this hero image for yourselves, but then what? She said it was too much and now you're gonna kill her, so you made this big mess to cover her death and give her a heroine's death while you get all the glory as the one who stopped them? Or did they just went out of control? 'Cuz she is way too fat to play damissel in distress."

Fran sounds a series of muffed noises that were most likely curses to his name.

"Oh please, like you're not fat."

"I don't have to sit here sit here and explain anything to you, freak!" He yells. "Come here Tinkers."

With a wolf whistle, Andy calls for their white tiger to the fight. Out of the dark the tiger jumps into scene growling at Danny.

"You're calling you scaredy cat to a ghost fight? What's he gonna do? Shudder on me to death?"

"No, I'm calling a ghost-hybrid tiger to a ghost-hybrid fight."

"What?" He asks as his ghost sense goes off. "Oh damn it."

In that moment, the green glowing white cat goes ghost with a green energy ring splitting up and down, becoming a large green ghost-tiger with black and white strips of at least six times its original size. Its muscles were now larger and far more powerful than ever before, its fangs grew curved, sharper and longer, extending down from the mouth as sabertooth fangs.

Slowly, the robust beast prowls around Danny staring at him with those big red glowing eyes as if it was saying "Run little bitch, run", with its paws and claws now smoldering and burning the ground with every step it took whilst swinging its flaming tail.

"This is bad." Danny says a second before the tiger utters a powerful roar even he could feel vibrate through his body, bristling a line of large bone quills along its back. "Ok, this is really bad," says pulling out his mechanical spider legs.

"You think this is bad? Wait till you meet the other ones," Andy says with a devilish smug grin in his face.

"All right, I'll take care of Dark Driger over here while you take care of Dark Freddy," Danny sounded to Jazz.

Phasing into the ground and then out of it, Danny takes the ghost-hybrid tiger out of the basement and away from his sister.

"You are so toast. When my brother returns, he is sooo going to blow your knees," Jazz sounded with her arms folded, glowering at him.

"You say that as if he had any chance in life of ever making it out of this. You know what awaits for him upstairs? Nothing but the largest horde of ghost-zombies ever. Every patient, every person that has walked into the hospital long enough to get infected with my nanites is now a ghost-ghoul and is under my control now. And you know what their prime directive is? To kill Danny Phantom."

"Yeah… he's still gonna blow your knees. But I still don't get it. You attacked those towns so you can look like heroes when you save them, I get that, but then why are you making all this ruckus?"

"Do you really want that old cartoon villain cliche? Do you really want me to monologue?"

"Well, I'm guessing you're gonna have a hard time when he blows your knees so now would be better."

Andy sighs pressing his knuckles against his eyes. "Fine… If I must, I must… you can sit if you want."

"No thanks, I'm fine."

"It all started a few days after the bomb. Fran and I were on a case, a haunted house. It seemed simple at first but then…"

"You proved yourselves incompetent as always and whoever you were trying to help would fire you?"

"That is… Yes," says angry. "In that moment Fran's conviction on our ghost-hunting career was… diminishing. She began to doubt of us the same way people does, she began to think that we were as useless as they think we are. She was thinking of leaving the team to have a 'normal life', what is that?! A life with a miserable job and devoid of excitement? She wouldn't want that, I know her enough to know she doesn't like that, but there she was thinking of giving up on our dreams of being the best ghost-hunting team and mystery solvers ever. I couldn't let her do that, I couldn't let her give up on our dream, on us!

"And when I found a dying 'ghozbie' as you call them, I thought maybe if I could control it like that blue ghost chick did in her fight with your brother, we could become the saviors this world needs.

"So I began to experiment with Fran's equipment and it didn't took me too long before I discovered a device that played in the same frequency in which their nanites operate."

"Wait, how did you know they work with nanobots?"

"One story at the time!" Andy yells exasperated.

"Gee, ok. Gosh, give them one shot as a villain, and they think they can yell at everyone."

"After that, it was all about timing. It started with small attacks, then in a few weeks we were taking care of big groups, keeping people safe, from them."

"Don't you mean safe from you?"

"Then we got the book, and soon before we realized it we were more famous than we ever thought, we even got a call for an interview with Larry King and Lance Thunder! I mean, can you believe that? The great Lance Thunder himself wanted us in his show, he wanted to talk with us. But then a Phantom came in…

"Your brother, he had to stick his nose where he wasn't called, and I could tell by the look in his eyes, he was suspicious. It was there when I realized how this would end: either he would keep digging into this eventually finding out the truth (which as you can see he did) or he could die while trying, and quite honestly, I was really fond with the second option, so I sent the signal for all the sleeping nanites inside every person who was treated or worked at that hospital long enough to get infected, it would be an outbreak, a pandemic like no other-the entire city would be in a ghost danger so big not even the great Danny Phantom could stop it, and when Fran and I put an end to it, we would be inarguably the greatest ghost-hunters ever.

"But when Fran saw me controlling these ghouls, she tried to stop me, and broke my master control, it was then when all hell brooke loose-and the worst? …Her lack of faith in me and my plan. But she'll see… I was right all along. I can make this work, for her, for us!"

"You know what I think? I think you're lying. I think you didn't do this for her, you did this for yourself. After all this years together, living on the road with her, trying to hunt ghosts, you knew nothing else, all you ever knew was Fran, your cat, and ghost-hunting. So when she said enough, when she wanted to make her separate way, you got scared, you couldn't bare to watch her walk away because that means to watch your whole life fall apart, that's why you made all this shenanigans to keep her by your side. And the saddest thing is that is not even a twisted act of love, no, it was all selfish, you did this for you. It was all fear and jealousy and for that I pity you."

"You pity me? We'll see who pities who when I-we get all the fame, money and respect from people on earth. Fran, don't believe any of what she says. I did this for you," he says at into the eyes of his longlife partner oblivious to the fear in her and the horror she felt for his acts, "so we can have what we always wanted."

"You know, forget about what I said earlier, I will blow your knees myself."

"Oh, you think you have what it takes?"

"I can wipe your white ass at any time."

"Really? Maybe we should put that to test," said snapping his fingers, summoning a group of twenty ghost-zombies. "Did I mention that I have a second master control made up, right behind my coclear implant? Well I do, it kinda works at thought and although I cannot control all of them, I can still control some of them."

There she was, Jazz Fenton all alone, surrounded by ghost-zombies waiting for the order to attack and tear her apart limb by limb, so/then why wasn't she afraid? If she didn't know any better, she would think of herself as crazy for how calm she was while standing there among such foul and dangerous creatures, for not being scared at all when facing these monsters. She knew she should be afraid of them but there was, not shred of fear in her, she was a Fenton after all. That's why instead of fear she felt thrilled as if this was where she belonged, among monsters, among ghost fighting them. Hunting ghosts was the family business, wasn't it?

It ran in her blood since the day she was born, it was the one thing they all shared and she could feel it right now, that thing inside her that for so long she denied, it was the roaring thrill of the hunt, that part of her that craved for fighting ghosts.

Meanwhile, above them Danny fights the giant ghost-tiger using his mechanical spider legs to hold him off as it pounces over him, taking him down on the dance floor.

"My god, what do they feed you with? Steroids?" Asks keeping its fangs away from his face as it tries to bite if off.

Staring directly into the tiger's jaw, he fires a powerful green ghost from his eyes which is greatly enhanced by the plano-convex design of his lenses.

The tiger jumps off of him screaming in pain with its mouth and face scorched. It growls staring staring at him with its red bright eyes as it quickly degenerates the damaged tissue. The hate in his eyes was impossible to hide.

Soon it began to blaze as it made a snorting sound, breathing out a large green and purple flare at him.

"Well check it out, that's what I cal a tyger, tyger burning bright." Danny jokes generating a cold energy shield. "Right, Jazz is downstairs and she is the only one who'd get it."

"I got it, sir." Said his operative system Gasper. "And it sucked."

"You're a cybernetic ghost, what do you know about jokes?"

"I know yours are lame, and I got an app for that. Also I have an app to hack the nanites so you can control them, but it is still a beta so it will take a while, and… well I don't make any promises that won't keep, I'm not a politician."

Sarcastically, Danny replies "Great! That is, that is… how long would it take."

"About twenty minutes."

"Isn't there a way to make it faster?" Asks hovering over the tiger.

"Yes, but you have to get close."

"How-?"

"Close enough to make it uncomfortable."

"Of course I do."

"Are you afraid, sir?"

"Afraid? Ha! This is going to be a snap. An annoying one, but still a snap."

Four white rings of energy appear next to Danny splitting as his transformation rings, generating four duplicates.

Using the detonation cord, one of the clones lassoes the ghost-zombie tiger as a cow tying its paws, while the other three fire a ghost ray from their hands and eyes to fight its resistance.

Danny slowly walks closer to the tiger as his clones cease fire, placing his hand on its head. Upon contact with the surprisingly soft fur of the monster, his knuckles weights begin to bright blue as circuit board lines glow from them along his hand and fingers, then extending onto the head of the ghost-zombie beast.

"Ok, now what?" He asks.

"Now you wait til I'm done with this."

"Wait?! Come on! I have a sister to protect her."

"I don't understand, sir. First you start a prank war with her, saying you miss the days in which you could vex her all the time regardless of her wellbeing, but then you try keep her away from danger even though she has proven to be able to take care of herself as well as you do, why?"

"Of course you don't understand, your a ghost software and I'm also guessing you are an only child."

"That's an understanding."

"The reason I started the war was not because I like to piss her off, well I do and a lot, but because I miss my sister and all the good times we had together when we used to play back when we were kids. Now we're all grown ups and hunters, all we do is hunt, and when we don't, all we fight and not in the funny way, but when we were kids, playing each other pranks, it wasn't just how we entertained ourselves on the road or when there was nothing good on TV, that was how we said each other 'I love you' which without actually having to, that's why I started it again to do with the fact I wanted to win that war,- because I mess her, and that is why I didn't and I don't want her to be close to these things, regular ghosts, that's ok, but ghost-zombies? No way. They're too dangerous and I love her more than I'm willing to admit to…" Danny pauses for a second taking a deep breathe. "If she becomes one of these things… I just couldn't make it. That's why I'm so protective of her. She is my sister, and I couldn't forgive myself if she gets hurt because of me." He admits prone. "Yo-you saw what happened, what I had to do back at Monica's, I don't want that for her. That's why I left her with the evil pothead, that dimwit could possibly not do anything without his army."

"Ok, so you prank each other because you love each other, that's how your brotherly love works, that's your quality brotherly/sisterly binding time. But then, why do you get so mad when she tries to protect you? That's what brothers do, they protect each other."

"Because I'm not a little kid anymore!" He yells. "I might miss how things were when we were children, but it doesn't mean I want her to see me as a child. Besides I'm the one with the powers, I'm the one who should protect her and not the other way around, I'm the one who-"

"Is putting a though act in front of his sister?"

"Now, why would I do that?"

"Because you don't want her to see that you might—**might **be looking for your big sister's shelter and comfort because you are scared of how things have changed in your life just this months—and the way you have been slowly changing as well, and most important, of how much you could change because you don't know where is the limit?"

"…That is… not as ridiculous as it sounds." Danny admits.

The suit keeps hacking the nanites as the tiger snorts and whiplashes him with its flaming tail, burning his face and flinging him onto the wall.

Danny gets up enraged. "That's it Tigger. No more Mr. Nice Phantom!" Danny states with his hands and claws blazing, pressing the detonation button of his explosive cord in his vambrace.

As Danny fights the giant tiger, Jazz stands before Andy surrounded by dozens of his ghost-zombies, all of them mowed down by her hand. The beasts fought savagely, but she was relentless, she was a natural hunter, she was more brutal, she was a Fenton and no ghost could possibly lay hand on her.

"Very nice. It seems that your Cloneblade konck-off has paid off well," Andy says claping slowly at her, remaining calm and even arrogant, "but how long do you think you can keep it off? Do you think Do you think you can take everything I throw at you?"

"Bring it on sucker! You ain't got the guts!" she yells at him, rising her fist and lowering her face visor, a transparent mask-helmet that protects her face. "Damn, I'm getting good at this," says to her self.

"All right, but keep in mind, you asked for this." Snapping his fingers, Andy summons another twenty ghost-zombies, this was the third lot he summoned and as the first forty they were fated to fail.

Pulling out a pair of swingblades from her boots and her wrists, she hurls at the wall of ghost-zombies standing befre her blocking their attacks with her froearms, hacking their hands, claws or whatever limb they had. When cutting it close to Andy, a ghastly figure flies at her at great speed and grabs her by the shoulders pushing her back, but she quickly extands the blades heels in her boots to generate traction by pining the ground and takes the creature covered in black shrouds by the neck with her arm straigh as possible, pushing i away from her and then shaping her left arm into a Plasma Cannon to tear it apart molecule by molecule with a purple ghost ray.

"Warning: The Suit Energy Levels are running down 65%" said a computer voice.  
"What? I thought this thing had an Ecto-Converter."

All the while Danny fights not only the ghost-zombie tiger but also a new group of ghost-zmbies, all of them in their ghost form.

"Ok... this is as bad as it looks like," said rising his blades, harshly beaten with his mouth bleeding ectoplasm. "But I'm still gonna beat you." Runing at full speed, he jumps and swing over the head of the largest and bulkiest ghost-zombie tapping its ears and landing in squat.  
"You guys mind if I play some music? I have something that will blow your minds," pressing a red button in his wrist device, he detonated the two Phantom Explosives he placed inside its hears blowing its head. The headless body falls on the ground as its green brains rain all over the place. "Now, don't think I forgot about you Diego," says to the tiger teleporting over its head, trying to hold it as thight as he can. "Gas hack it now!"  
"Almost got it, almost got it, I got it!" Gasper said as the savafe tiger is amed down,  
"...Congratulations you got it last."  
"Asimple tank you would have been enough,"  
"Whatever," says sitting on the back of the tiger. "No we can control all the ghozbies we can-"  
"Ah, sir, remeber I told you this was a beta version?"  
"Yeah, what about it?"  
"Well, it only orks on one chomper at the time."  
"Please tell me this is that app for jokes you told me earlier."  
"I'm afraid not."  
"So I wasted all this time trying to tame this cat for nothing?"  
"Well..."  
"You know what? Fuck you, I'm doing this old school. But first, and you probably saw this one coming," says creating a large ice sword. "I HAVE THE POWER!" Yells vimly bursting in ghost energy, "Man, I alway wanted to do that."  
Riding the ghost-zombie tiger at the swarm of ghost-zombie ahead of him swing his ice sword, prepared for the most viscerall ghost-zpmbie slaugther so far, ready to hit them hard with everything he has, and so will the ghost-zombies...

Moments later...

"Aaaaggghhh... that is soooooo... eeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwww..." Danny says as he gets out of a large green pile of butchered ghost-zombies. Joining his hands he uses his telekinesis to generate a sheathe of telekinetic energy between his body and the filth, explanding it as a bubble to clean off the guts and ectoplasm, creating gust of wind of wind and energy. "Ok, you know the drill, Gas. This never happened."  
"Ok sir,"  
"Never!"  
"If it makes you feel any better, that she-chomper had very larg breasts. Is very understandable for a man to get distracted witth such things floating in the air, even if theiy were half rotten."  
"I said not a word. Now let's get Jazz and the Brady Bunch,"

Galloping on the tiger into the basement, Danny finds himself with an astounding surprise.  
"Oh, hi Danny. No need for help, I can tie the evil pothead myself," Jazz said tying Andy to the popeline surrounded by a myriad of ghost-zombies all of them mutilated and wasted by her.  
"Wow... did you do this?" He aks going human.  
"Yep."  
"On your own."  
"What can I say? I'm just that awesome."  
"An the Ecto-Skeleton..."  
"It ran out of energy, It won't work up untill anther 24 hours."  
"And you did all this... alone..."  
"Well, you came in riding a ghost tiger like if you were He-Man, so... You also had your share of fun, haven't you?"  
"Well, I... saw a few things I might not forget soob. I had better though, but the city is still plagued." Says trying to walk among the guts and ectoplasm that flooded the floor.  
"Don't worry, we can force him to call them out..." Jazz says not knowing Andy had just spoted his bowie knife very close to his leg.  
"So.. I guess you didn't need me after all." He admits pensive, in low voice.  
"Hey, I'm a grown woman, I can take care of myself, but it doesn't mean I don't need my pain-in-the-ass little brother," she says ruffling his haed.

While Jazz tells her little brother about her battle, Andy gets his hands on his knife and quickly begins to cut the ropes.  
"So, how are we gonna deal with the pothead?" Asks squat checking the mouth of a ghost-zombie with piraña fangs.  
"Why don't you overshadow him?"  
"And getting a second hand trip? No thanks." says hardly moving across the room to see an octopus headed chomper.  
"Ok, what about-"  
"Jazz look out!" Yell the second he sees Andy on his feet from the corner of his eye.  
Rushing in, Andy stabs Jazz in the back with his bowie knife.  
"NOOO!"  
Full of spite, he twist the knife and pulls it out as he runs away.  
Danny flies going ghost by instinct.  
"Noooo! Jazz. Jazz come on!" Says holding his sisters on his arms. "Hey, hey... come here, come here sis', let me look at ya," says touching the wound on her back. "Oh, hey look, it's not even that bad... It's not even that bad, see? Jazz, Jazz! Hey, listen to me, I'm going to patch you up okay... You'll be as good as new. Huh? I'm here to take care of you, got it? I'm going to take care of you! I gotcha. It's my job, right, watch after my pain-in-the-ass big sister." Danny weeps. "Don't leave me, please... I need you... I need you! Gas, tell me there is something in this wretched suit that can save her!"  
"The suit doesn't come firt aid."  
"No... Jazz... Jazz! No. No-no-no-no-no-no. Oh, God. Oh, God... " says as he sees her vital signs dying fast.  
"But... maybe _I_ can save her life if I posses her."  
"What? How?"  
"You said ityourself, I am a ghost and as such I heal as fast as you do. If I posses her, I can heal her body while healing myself, but-"  
"Do it" I don't care the price, just do it!"  
"Fine, but while I'm gone, the suit will run in its default functions, no special weapons, only your power on the limit."  
"I don't care," says reaching her forehead. Green circuit boardlines glow along his sleeve as Gasper leaves the suit to posses  
Jazz.  
Danny waits desperate to see his sister open her eyes during a whole minute that seemed to last forever as Gasper repeairs the damage in her body.  
Jazz wakes up in a sudden gasp getting all of her air back.  
"Danny what...? Why does my back hurt and... is this? Is this blood? Did he-"  
"He tried to stab you, but... don't worry he only got as much as a paper cut, nothing I can't heal."  
"Wait, ypu can heal now?!"  
"Yes. I did. I heald you. All in a day of work, but don't worry, the first time is always free... You might feel a bit dizzy and backache though."  
"And he... ran away?"  
"Don't worry, I'll get him later."  
"No, you're not. We will, Team Fenton, remember?" Jazz smiles at him.  
"Right." Danny says with a coy smile huging his sister as hard as he can.  
"Ouch, my back. You sure you healed me right?"

Epilogue 1

In the backwoods of Salem, Andy runs desperate for his life. Twenty minutes ago he acted out of rage and spite when he saw how his plan to become half of the best ghost-hunter team ever was thwarted by the Fenton brothers. In retaliation he stabbed Jazz Fenton in the back and left her for death, except… the plan was never his to begin with and trying to kill a Fenton is a self-condemned death sentence of its own.

As he rushes into the woods he thinks he is safe from the wrath of the Phantom, that he is crying for his sister… Nothing further from the truth.

"You bastard!" yells Danny blowing up the line of trees in front of Andy with a ghost-energy wave. "You tried to kill her!"

"You surprised?" He asks hiding his fear with arrogance. "I killed hundreds of people to get to the top. And I'll a hundred more to get there!"

Danny yells full of rage and hate sweeping another energy wave at his feet. Andy falls on the ground scared of what he might do next. Just now I realized, maybe I should have just run and not stabbing her instead.

"You tried to kill her. You tried to take away the person I love the most in this world! And blood demands blood," he drawled. "What you did can only be paid by taking away from you that who you love the most."

"Fran… listen to me freak, if you-"Danny cuts him off with another energy wave hurled at his feet.

"But… I'm a hero… killing for revenge is not a hero's behave. Putting you behind bars, that's what a hero would do." Danny said as he rises his left hand with a blue aura on it firing a cold energy blast crystallizing an ice cage around Andy.

"Ice bars?" He chuckles. "So you're gonna leave me here in such a fragile construct?"

"No. I'm gonna make you watch, I'm gonna make you watch what you've done."

Snapping his fingers he teleports every ghost-zombie in the city his clones could find in the last twenty minutes while he prowled for Andy in the woods.

The myriad of monsters tries to grab Andy pulling their hands through the ghost ice bars.

"You-you can't leave me here with those things, they'd kill me, you-you are a hero. You save people."

"Save people? Yeah, I guess that's kinda my gig, but... I might not gonna save you. Now, if I recall correctly, I also made you a promise: I said next time I saw you, I will blow your knees," said pointing at him with his right hand glowing green. "And a hero never breaks his word."

Glaring at him with his slanted lenses, he fires an intense energy blast from his finger tip blowing Andy's right knee.

"My knee!" Andy shouts in pain.

"Don't be such a cry baby, you still got a second one. Maybe I should fix that." Says shooting at his left knee. "Now, I wonder how long do you have until your creations break through my ice cage, because you know, that is such a fragile construct."

The monsters made by Andy keep pushing and pounding at the ice cage, the cage holds them off, but he knew that it would soon give in.

He crawls onto th center of the cage trying to satay away from their claws. His heart was racing, fear told -yelled- him to run but he had no legs anymore, and all he could do now was peeing his pants as the monsters keep pounding at the ice, again… and again… and again and then one more time and with every pound a new crack would appear

"Oh my God, the suspense is killing me," said Danny with a smile as he blasts the ice cage so the ghost-zombies can eat Andy.

Rushing as wild beasts they prey on Andy tearing apart his arms with their claws and fangs.

In his last dying words he yells "...Y-you think I'm bad? You think you are bad?! Just… til you meet others-"

Danny floats over the trees as Andy gets mauled by his monsters, and in his heart he knows, he fells he has done the right thing and in his mind… there is not the slightest sign of regret for his actions. He regrets he ever had to kill a kid but letting the monster that pushed him on that situation die at the hands of his victims, killing the man who almost killed his sister pushing him over the limit? A limit no hero should cross and he never thought he would? He loved to hear that man screaming as he was torn apart by those feracious ghost-zombies and he would do that again if he had to... God... what's happening to me?, he thinks to himself.

Danny leaves the ghost-zombies inside a bubble-shaped ghost shield so they wouldn't escape through the ground and to contain the explosion once their nanites expire. 

Epilogue 2

Salem Massachusetts

September, 6.  
04:34 PM Local Time  
After taking care of every ghost-zombie they could find, and helping some of the injuried, Jazz and Danny give their farewell to the few remaining Police Officers of Salem.  
"I know what you did last night." Jazz says.  
"What?" he asks startled. "Wh-what do you mean?"  
"Monica told me about it. She said she doesn't hate you... she said... she knows you didn't have other choice..."  
"Ah, that... yeah, I... I dont want to talk about it." Answers prone.  
"Danny you... you had to... you had to do it. I got it, I know there is no other way but... It doesn't mean it's all right. And I can see you are chagrin," says laying a hand on his shoulder. "You said it yourself, I'm your big sister, who else would you lean onto when you need help?"  
"You're right, but there is something else I did last night... "  
"Uh?"  
"Last night, I chased down Andy after he stabbed you, and... I blew off his knees."  
"You what?"  
"And then... I left him to die. Left him at the mercy of him ghost-zombies, I took off his legs so he would die." Jazz statres at him in awe. "Ever since the bomb... I feel I'm not the Danny you knew anymore, I've been changing, in little things that don't really matter, but then there are other things. I'm forced to do things I would never do, expect this time, I decided to do that, and I know I should feel bad about it, but I don't, I actually fell... I fell I did the right thing by letting him die, by not letting him live to kill more people, and I know I should worry about that but I don't..."  
"...Danny..."  
"To be honest, I feel I'm not your brother anymore. Like I might come to the point in where I don't even really care if I kill as long as it was the bad guy. And maybe i should feel guilty but I dont, I can't."  
"Damny, how..."  
"And I'm glad I put my suit's ghost-OS inside you, because that way I can do this. Gasper, erase these conversation from her mind."  
"What-" Her eyes turn completly green glowing with intensity as she get cut off abruptly by Gasper who takes over her mind erasing the conversation she just had with Danny. "So, are you ready leave?" she asks Danny.  
"Yep."  
"You sure you are ok?"  
"I'm fine, I'm good as knew."  
"efore we go, I was thinking, why don't we put a end to this prank war?"  
"All right... at least for the next hundred miles."  
"Good, starting now, then," says opening the door of the RV, letting a bucket of green goo fall over her head.  
"Starting soon," says Danny with a grin. "Don't worry, I'll reach the hundred miles in at least an hour." Said getting inside the RV.

Epilogue 3

Technus' HQ. Ghost Zone.  
ISliding like a shadow on the wall, Vlad Plasmius manifests himself in his ghost form, aproaching Technus from behind.  
"I take it our little skim has played out as planned." Vlad inquires. "Otherwise, your call wouldn't have been so... blatant."  
"It played rather excellent." Technus says. "Your plan of manipulating that pothead so he would use our ghost-zombies to spread chaos while at the same time spreading and infecting people with dormant nanites through every few survivor of their attacks was..."  
"A scheme worth of a king, I know. Nothing like letting the pawns do all the dirty job while all you do is placing them in the right direction. It's so easy it almost feels like cheating. Now, how are the subjects?"  
Technus open a slinding door revelaing a line of stasis chambers with every person infected with his nanobots from every city attack by Andy. "They'r doing excelent. With a few imrovements to their Nano-Ghosts we'll have them ready to be placed as sleeping cell in every major city of the world as our own sleeping agents, waiting for the signal to be activated."  
"Ha! A leeping agent, I so love a good spy plot. Now, speaking our signal... did our firiend upstairs got hers?"  
"Yes, the incursion is on the way."

Recap Page

Over a month ago, a ghost-nuclear bomb exploded in Amity Park. This bomb released a dangerous cloud of nanites designed to create human-ghost hybrids, but this hybrids are not quite as those known by men, these are flawed and decaying replicas of the originals. This replicas are known as ghost-zombies.

During the last month a swarm of these ghost-zombies has traveled across the country attacking cities at random, moving towards Salem, Massachusetts. This incidents call the attention of the world's hero and original second ghost-hybrid/ghost-hunter Danny Phantom who decides to travel with his big sister Jazz to work in this case and find out the truth behind all these attacks.

After almost a week working the case and crossing paths again with the intolerable "Groovy Gang and the Scaredy Cat", Danny quickly jumps to the conclusion that they are responsible for the attacks and that somehow they control the ghost-zombies after seen how they made them dance in the middle of town, to become respected figures among the ghost-hunter community but just when Danny discovers this, they lose control over their ghost-zombies who turn back on their masters.

Now all of Salem is under siege by the ghozbies and the Fenton brothers are fighting for their lives against a horde of them in a dance club looking for the responsible of this catastrophe.


	5. Chapter 4

Danny Phantom Unlimited

Phantoms of the Heart:

WENDIGO!, Part 1 of 2

I'd love to eat you all up.

Teaser

Silence. Cold. Darkness. Numbness… All of it surrounded Danny, pinned in his flesh, deep into the bone.

As he wakes up the silence is replaced by a faint and distant dripping sound that grows as he becomes aware of himself and his situation. The numbness is replaced by sore, and only cold and darkness remains around him. The air was flooded, naunced with an with an array of stenches he couldn't and he didn't want to identify, but as he strives to get back on his feet a unique smell strikes his nose, an odor coming from the wet and muddy floor he so unfortunately finds himself lying.

"Sam!" He yells hoping his girlfriend to answer his call.

"Yeah!" She yells from an nearby room. Just to hear his girlfriend yelling gives him a great sense of relief, this is the first and only time it happens.

Well, we all have always a first time.

Danny gets back on his feet and moves around what seems to be a very small cell stepping on a rare liquid spread all over the floor realizing one terrible truth.

"I'm standing in pee!"

"…Consider yourself lucky!" She yells muddled by such strange statement.

"Yikes. That sucks," states looking around the room with his eyes glowing green.

The green ghost light from his eyes worked as makeshift night vision and even though it wasn't as good as his suit's or that of an animal, it was good enough to see the remanent of bones around the cell. As he looks better, he realizes those are human bones.

Slowly, he begins to remember in small pieces where he was and how did he get there.

It all started with a case in Minnesota, a strange series of disappearances, campers and hunters gone missing for weeks when going into the woods. No ransom is asked for, no bodies are found, not even reports of animal attacks in the area. In three weeks six campers and eight hunters have gone missing, all of them simply disappeared like a ghost. With all that was going on it didn't take to much for Danny to connect the dots and realize this is a ghost-related case, or maybe it was just his instinctive go-to answer for everything that can't or hasn't been explained, he was a Fenton after all, and for his family ghosts are the answer to every problem.

"Are you ok?" He asked.

"Well, I'm not standing on pee so… I can consider myself luckier." She replies. Her words are said with her worn-out sarcasm.

"Where are you? Or more like, where are we anyway?"

"Isn't it obvious? Dark, muddy, wet. We're are in a cave, what else could it be?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I couldn't see that, it must be all the darkness in here!" he answers with even more sarcasm.

Angry and sarcastically she replies "Wow, look who is snappy all of a sudden."

"Really Sam, your sarcasm is, how-that's original." He answers. "I wonder if you can 'sarcasm' us out of here."

"Ok, first of all sarcasm is not a verb, and second of all you are the one who brought us here in the first place, we wouldn't be in this cave if it wasn't for you."

"Ah, so is my fault now?"

"Certainly is not mine."

"Right, because you never get us into trouble. Oh wait… you do."

"Yeah right, it's all my fault. In none related news ghosts can be such bad boyfriends sometimes…"

"You got it wrong, the actual word is Goths," Danny sounds with disdain.

"Sure, because I'm the one who hauled us here to work a case that should have been handled by the police, and I'm the one who got us locked in a cave, oh, and let's not forget I'm the one who got drudged and knocked out by whatever freak of the we got this week."

"…At least you admit you are ideas are bad." He sounded. "About damn time it was."

"You are the one who brought us here, you idiot! You are the one who got us into this mess!"

"Wait… I did?"

"Yes. You. DID!"

"…Oh …wait… I think I'm starting to remember now." Memories of the event's of last week begin to flash in his mind. "…And I wouldn't have done that if you would have talked to me rather than shutting me off or changing the topic whenever I touched it, a topic you brought up first!"

"…" By the first time Sam didn't have a snappy answer, or any answer at all.

"Damn, my dad was right, women are crazy!"

First Act: Matters of the heart.

Four days ago…

Amity Park, Danny's room. 9:36 PM Local Time.

(I'll surely die by The Rubbens plays in the radio.)

It all started that one night at Danny's room. Everything that day had been going out great, by the first time ever he got a B+ in a math test, Dash was ill at home and nobody messed with him, he and Sam went to the movies that day right after school, enjoyed each others' company, it was a good day, then everything changed when Sam started talking. It wasn't until they were in his bed that night, lying next to each other, head to head that things went astray.

She had done her hair that day changing for a bob cut with blunt bang, dyed red inside in the back and with three red strands covering her forehead. He loved the way these three wisps of red spread all across her forehead when lying on his bed, naunced with the black.

"Why is it you are smiling so much?" She asked.

He stares at her violet eyes smiling like any fool in love.

"Nothing, I just… love your new haircut."

"Hehe… thanks," she says blushed, pulling her hair behind her ear. "I wasn't sure you'd like it."

"Well, I do," says leaning onto the header of his bed. "It looks great on you."

"Danny… I… want to talk to you about something." Sam sounded really serious, seating next to him.

"Sure."

"You know I love you, right?"

"Of course I do."

"And well, there is this thing… when we started dating, I must say I was afraid I might… lose something. Something very important I've always had and I didn't want to lose. I wasn't ready to lose that yet, but now…"

"Watcha talkin bout?" he asks imitating Gary Coleman.

"Danny, I'm serious here."

"Wow, you mean it. Ok, what is it?"

"When I became your girlfriend, I was afraid I might… lose my best friend… among other things," she says almost in a whisper. "You and I have always been that, just friends, but now… we are together, and…"

"And…?"

"And well, things have turned out just great. I couldn't imagine my life without you."

"Neither could I."

"And we've been through a lot of stuff even before we started dating."

"Right…" says, not knowing where she was going with this.

"And we could have died, like, so many times. I lost track of how many times I could've lost you."

"Always looking for the silver lining, eh?"

"Well, the thing is… I think I might-might be ready to… lose something else… you know…"

"…Uh.. no I don't."

"Yes you do. You know maybe… is time we… go for it."

"Aaaah… you want to play fetch?"

"Danny! I'm not playing, I'm serious."

"Well, I don't know what you're talking about. I can't get the meaning when people beats around the bushes, you know that."

Sam sighs looking prone.

"I think… maybe is time for us… maybe we should… do it."

Next day…

Next day at school, Sam and Danny could hardly look at each other's face. The tension between them was insufferable, as soon as they were within a twenty feet distance from each other Sam would run away barely looking at him, and Danny would take his frustration beating his locker with his fists smoldering.

"So, for my 327 book, this guy is attacked by… a head eating locker!" Sounded Valerie sarcastically, right behind him. "The premise is gonna be… ok, that is as far as I go."

"What do you want?" Danny asked with his head inside his locker.

"Still alive, eh? Well, I heard about what happened last night with you and Sam, or more like… what didn't happen last night."

"What?!" He asks phasing his head out of the locker. "What-? How do you know that?!"

"I… might have told her, sorry." Tucker said hiding behind her.

"…That's it, I'm gonna blow your knees too."

"Hey you're the one who told me that in the first place."

"But it wasn't for you to tell everyone we know!"

"In his defense," Valerie interrupted, "he didn't really want to tell me, I actually forced him to do that just now. He had that 'I got a very juicy gossip I can't tell anybody' kinda face and I just couldn't help but to force him to spill out. Sorry, is an old habit."

"Oh great, you might as well tweet the damn thing." He sounded with anger.

"Hey, there is nothing to be embarrassed about." Valerie says. "You two have been together for two years now, that woulda happen sooner or later."

"Yeah well, the thing… is it didn't happen," he sounded somber.

"Why? Was it under thirty second? Because let me tell you, if it was inside the whole time, then it does count," retorted Valerie.

"What?! Noooo!" He said hastily.

"No it wasn't inside, or no it didn't-"

"No, It didn't happen, period." He said cutting her off. "She just… mentions that out of nowhere, I ask her if she's serious about it and then she leaves mad at me for no reason whatsoever."

"Ok, we got twenty minutes before first period, care to explain what happened?" She asked. "And this time I want the juicy details."

"Not really."

"Come on," she said taking him by the arm. "We're friends, you know you can tell me."

"Where is that attitude when I got a problem with Star?" Tucker inquired.

"Hey, you are the one who wanted to date an Alpha Bitch, you knew what you were getting into, that was your choice, you deal with it." She says bluntly. "He on the other hand is too clueless to know what he gets into. Besides, I know you don't have that kind of problems with her, do you?"

"I'm… gonna be the Lab Tech if you need me."

"Woa, you gotta teach me how to do that," Danny said as he started walking with Val.

"Oh, I'm gonna teach you more than that," she says with a smile, leaning her face closer to Danny's.

Oh, look at her, she is so cute and… great, now I feel like a jerk for noticing her new haircut, Danny thinks to himself.

Just like Sam Val decided to have a change of look opting for straightening her curled hair, fashioning an angled bob cut hairstyle with two strands of hair framing her wickedly pretty face. As they move he notices the sweet vanilla and coconut fragrance of her hair.

"What are you thinking now?" She asks.

"I… did I mention how cute you look with your new haircut?"

"Wow, and all I needed was to be within a kissing distance from you so you can notice my new haircut. You sure know how to make girl feel special," said with sarcasm. "No wonder Sam wants to kill you."

"She doesn't want to kill me."

"Aha. Has she talked to you since yesterday?"

"Uh… no."

"Have any-any of you called the other since last night?"

"No… not really."

"And when you saw her this morning, did she look happy? And I mean happy by her standards."

"…Ok, I'm listening."

"Great. Believe I got plenty of experience with it."

"Wait, does it mean that you…"

"Oh lord, no. I haven't had a boyfriend in almost two years, you know that."

"But then…"

"I've… done quite some research about the topic so I can know what to do, and most important, what I'd like him to do," she said staring at his blue eyes with her big green eyes. Never before he noticed how beautiful, seductive and captivating her eyes are, even worst, just now he realized he has never thought of Sam's eyes that way.

"What?…"

"I'd like to be prepared for when it happens, mostly so I won't be disappointed. Also there is Star, she is my best friend, you know how we girls talk about all kind of stuff and if there is something she talks about is that."

"Wait what?!"

"Yeah, and I mean a lot. Sometimes you'd like to touch yourself when she talks, and sometimes is like OMG KMN."

"No, not that, that is… the first part, what do you mean with disappointed?"

"Ah well, this a little girls secret that is not so secret, just because it's the first time, it doesn't mean it has to hurt or that it will be great and special."

"Oh great, because at first I wasn't worried about my performance, but now, now I know is a standard issue to disappoint your girlfriend your time together. Things just keep turning out better and better!"

"Don't worry, you'll be fine, you got superhuman strength. What else could a girl ask?"

Danny stares at her aghast.

Second act: A couples' retreat.

Now…

Inside the cave where Danny and Sam are held captives, they finally get the time to talk about that night.

"Ok, maybe… maybe in retrospective it wasn't such a good idea from me to bring that up," she admits, sitting leaning on the wall, "but you gotta admit that your idea of coming here to Minnesota just the two of us to hunt that… thing, it was a bad idea too."

"Hey, I was trying to make something beautiful for us, I was trying to fix things! You wouldn't stop blowing me off so I had to something about it."

"And coming here to hunt monsters is your definition of a romantic getaway?"

"Hey, don't put the blame on me for that. You're not romantic, you're unromantic. This is the kind of stuff you love. If I would've tried something else, you would've hated it even more. If you were like any other girl, pleasing you would be easier."

"Great, now you blaming me for being unique. Way to go Danny, you sure know how to be romantic."

"You are a Goth, there is nothing unique and original about that and you know it.

For a moment there, Sam sat quiet, without uttering a single word.

"Sam, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Where did you get that idea anyway?"

"Eh… you're gonna like that even less…"

Three days earlier… or… where did Danny get such a bright idea as a "romantic getaway" with Sam hunting monsters in Minnesota?

That day at school after his little… baffling conversation with Val about Sam and her miscarried proposal, Danny sat with her in an eating bench while waiting for the first period, asking her some advice about relationships.

"Why don't you go to a couples' retreat?" Val suggests.

"A what?"

"You know, a place where you can be alone with her, just the two of you. That way you could talk it all out, and maybe… get something else."

"That sounds like a romantic getaway. That's not gonna work, Sam everything but romantic, she is unromantic."

"Then make it a romantic hunting-getaway."

"A hunting-getaway? That might actually work. I heard about these disappearances, some hunters and campers getting missing in Minnesota. And I'm sure as Hell is hot that it has to do with rogue ghosts!" He states. "Just the kind of ghost she likes to punch. Val you are a genius."

"Hey, if I called my dad, would you tell him that?"

Now.

"You took relationships advice from Valerie?!" Sam inquired angry.

"In her defense, she just suggested the getaway part, I picked the place. It seemed like a good idea at the time." He excuses himself. "Just the two of us, alone to be you and me. so we can, you know… talk about that night," explains leaning onto the wall, arm folded.

"There is nothing to talk about."

"Like hell there is! You first tell me you want to have sex with me and then you run away from me like if I had chlamydia or something.

"… I…"

"You wouldn't even talk to me and pretend nothing happened. No, you just shut me off. You can't just drop something like that on a guy and then completely ignore him."

"I-"

"You are all like 'oh you're my boyfriend? Sorry I forgot that. Gotta go for no reason.' You got any idea how do I feel about that?"

"How do you feel? You got any idea how I feel about that?"

"No. I. Don't! Because you won't talk to me. Haven't you been paying attention? That's why I brought you here, so we can talk about that because it's clear you wouldn't back there."

"…Yeah well… you got your wish. Now we're all alone." Sam points out. "You wanna? Let's talk."

"Eh… Actually, you're not alone," a man says from another room.

"Yeah, we're here too dude," says a girl with comely voice. "Just saying."

"What? Who's that?" Sam asks.

"It's us! The Extreme Ghostbreakers! And for the record we came here first." Sullivan, the male half of the duo, explains.

"What Sully meant to say is, we got knocked out first." Explains Brenner, the enticing female half of the Extreme Ghostbreakers.

"Oh great, first our non-existent sex-life becomes a trending topic at school and now this."

"Oh come on, we're not trending topic."

"Oh we're not?"

Flashback.

Casper High, 09:32 AM

After first period, Sam runs out of the classroom ambivalent, not sure if she wanted to talk to Danny or not. A part of her, the little rational part of her mind, wanted to apologize for her behavior last night, by touching such a delicate thing and then running out of his house. She knew this could seriously maim their relationship, but she was scared, too scared to even look at him in the eyes. She wouldn't admit to him that the idea of that much physical intimacy was too overwhelming to her, how could she explain that when it was her who brought that up in the first place?

Poor little thing, all she wanted was her relationship to be more serious and now things were seriously astray, and there is only one way it could get any worse.

She would discover this at lunch time when sitting alone avoiding eye contact or any contact with Danny at all cost, when Tucker and Star approached to her table; both with a slice of pizza in their plates. Star was showing an inordinate amount of interest in her.

"Eh… you are in my bubble," Sam says as Star keeps looking at her with fixation, getting too close to her liking.

"Ooooh…. Look at you." She says exited. "You're so changed!"

"I just had a new haircut with highlights, is not such a big change. Besides what do you care about?"

"Aaaaw, she's playing dumb. Oh, Sammy!"

"Don't call me that."

"You might play dumb all you want, but we both know what other games you're playing now."

"I don't think I know what you're talking now."

"Yes, you do. And now we can have womanly talks!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know…" says nodding her head towards Tucker who looked rather anxious.

"What do you-? Wait, you told her?!" asks slamming her sandwich with rage. "How did you even know that?"

"Danny told me." He said quick to blame him.

"And he told you to tell the tale?"

"No-"

"Then why did you tell her?"

"I'm sorry," he cries, "I couldn't help it! She knew my one weakness: That I'm weak!"

"I can't believe you two." Says leaving the table embittered.

"You know, I'd believe that after having some sex, she'd be a lot happier now, you know without all that sexual frustration." Star sounds. "I'm guessing it wasn't that good after all. You should give your friend some tips," suggest holding Tucker's hand tightly, kissing his neck.

Meanwhile, when discussing with Val about what to do with Sam, Danny gets approached by Dash.

"Yo-ho, way to go Fentonio," he says slapping his back.

"Dash? I thought you were sick."

"That was yesterday, but today it ain't about me. This is about you."

"We heard the news," Paulina said standing behind him. "So you finally proved your selfworth as a man to your girlfriend."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb, we all know what you did." Dash says.

"Excuse me? Did what?

"You know… you did the wild walk, signed the deed, made a touchdown single-handedly, or was it with both hands?!"

"Tonight's Babble Chat was hosted by Dash Baxter, such a shame you have to go now." Valerie said.

"What is he-? Oh God no…" says to himself covering his face with both hands. "Please don't tell me he-You don't think they know, do you?"

"I don't know, that was too weird even for him."

"Val, if I asked you to kill me, would you do that? Like, right now?" Said with his head on the table.

"You sure wanna die a virgin?"

"Right now I settle with just dead."

Now.

"Ok, maybe we're a bit of a trending topic." Danny admits. "But if I knew Tucker was gonna open his mouth that way, I wouldn't have told him anything."

"And why did you tell him that?"

"Well, I clearly was not going to talk about it with you," he rants.

"You guys seem to have some communication problems… at the extreme," Brenner says.

"No we don't!" Sam denies right away,

"You know, because to have communication problems, I believe you must have some communication first," Danny claims bitingly sarcastic.

"Actually not communicating is the problem," Sullivan explain.

"What do you guys know? Are extreme couples counselors now?" Sam asked.

"Ah… yes," Brenner said.

"You kidding me?"

"She isn't," Danny said.

"You think extreme ghost-hunting pays itself? Na-ah," Sullivan said. "Our equipment is extremely expensive as well as the hospital bills, so we got a second job to pay for our first job."

"And your first choice was to become therapist?"

"Sam, there is no place for avoidance here, this isn't about us, this is about you." Brenner says.

"For the record, we're liscend."

"Why don't you tell us what happened after school?" Brenner asked.

"Why would I?" Sam asks contentious.

"She's trying to help, do you know what that is? Actually helping people, and not just forcing them to do your will just because you think you know better?" Danny asked.

"Is that how you feel Danny? Like she always forces you to do things you don't want?"

"No!" Sam said.

"You don't answer for me! Yes she does, she does it all the time. This powers, the reason I'm a freak is because of her, she had the bright idea of of me walking into the Ghost Portal."

"You don't seem to complain that much when you're using your powers."

"Like you would listen over the sound of you own voice."

"Yeah well… you brought me here without even asking me. How about that?"

"'How about that?' I think now you know how I feel. Not so good when you are on the side."

"This so remind me of our first year together." Brenner said to Sullivan in a whisper.

"Ok, why don't we start there, then? Tell us about this trip."

"Yeah Danny, tell about your great idea of coming here to hunt a… whatever that thing is."

Two days earlier.

The road between Minnesota and Amity Park.

08:45 PM

Danny pulls up the Fenton RV in a Nasty Burger in their way to Minnesota, the radio plays Bon Jovi's "Wanted" as he hands Sam some money to buy their dinner.

"Hey, don't forget the extra onions this time, huh sweetie?"

"Damn it Danny, I'm the one whose gonna have to ride in the car with your extra onions." Danny grins saying "Hey you want me to eat more vegetables, don't you? Well, onions are veggies," argues as Sam gets out of the car, sighing.

"A whole world of vegetables and he picks the one that sucks."

"Hey, see if they've got any pie. Or ice cream, or chocolate, or cookies… or just anything with sugar."

"Why?"

"Nobody should ever justify to want something sweet." He states. "You should give it a try."

Glaring, Sam shuts the door.

"Bring me some pie!" Yells out of the window. "I love me some pie," said to himself."

Sam leaves the RV-

"Uuuhhmm… you said you wanted some pie?" Sullivan asked.

"Yeah, I have a high metabolism. I need to eat a lot of sugar for my powers to get them working, what about it?"

"Ah, is that so? I was thinking something else entirely… to the extreme."

"Like what?"

"Well, it all started because Sam wanted to have sex, and as it happens to be, 'Eating pie' is a euphemism for cunnilingus."

"For what?" Sam inquired.

"I see you don't know. I think we better keep it that way." He said.

"I can explain you that later if you want," Brenner offered.

"I'm not sure I want to."

"Tell me Danny, you sure it is just your metabolism the reason why you crave for sugar like an ant, and not something else?" Brenner asked.

"Well I'm sensing-just sensing-you've quite some inner demons, problems you're not willing to talk to anybody, not just your problems with Sam but your superhero problems, maybe? Tell me is it an agony so terrible, you're feeling so bitter that every bite you take has to be coated in sugar?"

"You have suppressed the pain of being a champion of justice, but the evidence of the pain is molded into his very body," Brenner retorted. "Now you feel bitter and alone because you have to carry the world's weight on your shoulders, a burden no one else can know or imagine and not jusr that but with a war at the door! That makes you feel so bittered that you can only get over it with sugar."

"Don't know what you're talking about." Sounded Danny as he swallows a handful of Vicodin to ease the pain of his body and his heart, denying the slightest possibility that he could feel any pain. "Why don't we go back to that night?"

Then…

Sam goes back into the car with a salad for her and an order of onion rings, a cheese burger, a strawberry milkshake and a cherry pie.

"You're lucky tonight, they got a combo for the pie and the milkshake," says giving him his food.

"Sweet!"

"So… this case…"

"Yeah, I made some research while you were away. Check this out," says handing her Jazz' laptop. "In the last month, quite soon after the bomb, camper and hunters in Minnesota have been abducted from their camping or hunting sites."

"Hunters you say? At least is not a complete loss."

"We're hunters."

"We hunt ghosts, not helpless animals."

"Yeah well, they either found a not so helpless animal, or they're being taken by ghosts."

"Wait, why do you think they're ghosts?"

"Remember the ghost-zombies? Before the attack Technus had kidnapped humans to use as guinea pigs for his hybrids. I believe he might be doing the same here, snatching people to make more ghozbies, keeping a low profile while he harness his big bad army for whatever Ghost-Zombie Apocalypse he has in mind."

"Yeah, but it could be something else. It doesn't have to be a ghost, it could be a serial killer, or a very smart animal."

"A very smart animal? You do realize no bodies are found at all. I mean no bone, no carcasses, not even clothes."

"Ok, maybe is not an animal. But it doesn't have to be a ghost."

"Well, whatever it is, we're gonna solve it. Now eat your salad and go to bed, we still got a long way to drive and I need you fresh for tomorrow."

"Wait, you're not gonna sleep?"

"I… don't sleep."

"Wait, you don't? Since when?"

"Since I gotta drive. Now chop chop, you got food to eat and… dream to sleep."

"Right. But before going to bed… Danny, I'd like to say something first."

"Sure," says taking his onion rings and sitting on the drivers seat.

Very coy, she starts speaking "Well… You know… after the other night… I need to know-"

Sam gets cut off by Danny's phone playing The Countours' "Do You Love Me?"

"Sorry, my mom ¡s calling," he said picking up his phone. "Hi mom. No I'm fine. Yes I do. Nah she is fine, she is ready to go to bed. Don't worry I got protection."

"What?" Sam asked astounded.

"A bowie knife hidden under my pillow," Danny said to his mother.

"What the-?" asks Sam checking under the pillow picking up a hunting knife with a sky blue glow on its blade.

"Yep, the blade is laced with ectoplasm so it can cut ghosts. That's because I made all up, mommy. It's homemade! Just like those toys you and dad make all time." Danny said proud of his little invention. "Sure, bye mom. So what did you wanna ask?" inquired turning his attention to Sam.

"Nothing!" Says quickly hiding again the knife under the pillow. "Just… A bowie knife?"

"I just said it, we're hunters," says biting his onion rings. "Oh God, I love this," says while chewing his food.

"Well, that's nasty." Sam said to herself.

Meanwhile at Fenton Works.  
"Mom, have you seen my laptop?" Jazz asks ravaging her rooms earching for her laptop.  
"You gave it to Danny for his hunting trip, remember sweetie?"  
"What?! He took my computer? I never told him he could do that. That little lier, sonuva-"

Next day.

The next day they arrive to Minnesota early in the morning to move on with their "we're ghost-hunters and your case is haunted" routine, which only to gets them shut down by the police except this time Danny had a plan that promised to grant them full cooperation from the cops.

"Fake IDs?" Sam asks as he explain his plan.

"Not just fake IDs, real-looking FBI IDs, that way they'll be forced to cooperate unless they'll find themselves in a world of pain." Retorted Danny with a proud grin.

"Ok, where did you get this idea?"

"The X Files," states still with a grin. "I mean, it worked for them."

"Yeah, because they were actual FBI agents. Danny you know this is pretty illegal, don't you?"

"Sweetie, I'm a ghost, the law can't touch me."

"Yeah, well I'm not a ghost. I-I don't even have the look. I'm seventeen, I'm too to be an FBI, I'm too young to do a lot of stuff..."

"Still not to young for... you know... fighting ghosts and monsters. Anyway, I'm way ahead of you darling, I took some of Jazz' clothes when I took her laptop, I believe you'll find something fitting that will make you look like a brand new Special Agent who has been tasked with a 'ghost specialist' for her first case. That's our backstory by the way."

"And you say my ideas are terrible."

"Nah, don't be so gloomy, it's your first day in the office… Agent Lee," said handing her the fake ID.

"Wait, so you took your sister's computer and her clothes? Did you even ask her about it?" Brenner sounded.

"Really? From all the flashback, that's what you pick up? Not even the fact he makes me pose as an FBI, or Homeland Security?" Sam replied.

"I just find it interesting how he has no concept of privacy, he took that to a new-"

"You say extreme again and I'm cutting your tongue off," Sam sounds.

"…Please, do continue with the flashback."

09:26 AM

With Sam dressed up as a brand new FBI Agent wearing an office suit with a double-breasted jacket, covered in a black trench coat with shoulder-pads, they prepare to put Danny's plan to test.  
"Great! You look just like Scully, now act natural, like you own the goddamn place."  
"Hey. You know what definitely makes more sense than a four-button jacket on a tiny woman? Anything else!"  
"If ate some meat, you'd grow some more."  
"...How am I even suppossed to fake that?"  
"Just do what I do, I just 'walk into the club like: what up? I got a big cock.'"  
"What?"  
"Ok, poor choice of words... Just follow my lead."  
"Just sister really needs to freshen up her closet, we're ni¡ot in the 90's anymore."

Meanwhile, back at Fenton Works.  
"Mom, where is my all my clothes?!"  
"Don't know, sweethaert, why do you ask?"  
"I got a date tonight and I can't find any of my other clothes, and I already threw my one last shirt to lawdry machine. Damn it, if Danny touched my closet, I'm gonna-"

Minnesota.  
09:34 AM Local Time.  
The young couple walks into the police station introducing themselves to Sheriff McCail, a short old man near his sixties no taller than Sam.  
"Good morning, I'm Danny Phantom, the ghost kid, I'm on tv at seven, and this my partner Special Agent Lee. She is from the FBI."

"The FBI? She seems a little too young to be with the Feds."

"She is fresh from the production line, but she is older than she looks. Show him your badge," he orders sam who immediately pulls out her ID upside down. Quickly he taks her badge and switchs it up.

"Right… Care to explain what you're doing here?"

"Well, I understand there have been some missing people in the last month. Campers and hunters gone awol and no bodies have been found, no phone calls asking for money."

"Yeah but, why would the FBI be interested on that? Not like they were white, blond 8 year old girls."

"Well, that could very well be the act of a serial killer, one very good covering his track." Sam points out. "We, the FBI, are quite concern on that."

"We don't even know if there is a serial killer behind this. As far as we know, they could be just lost, those backwoods can be quite tricky sometimes. And if that is the act of a serial killer then what is he doing here?" Asks ponting at Danny.

"Yeah well, the FBI believes this might be related to ghosts," Danny explains. "You kw, after the bomb in Amity Park and Las Vegas incident, they can't take any risk."

"Is that so? I hope you don't mind, I would like speak to your supervisor? Just to make sure everything is in order." He asked Sam.

"My supervisor? Sure thing, eh, …Danny."

"I think I have his number here."

Danny hands him a card with a cell number on it. The old Sheriff goes into his office to call the number on the card.

"Damn it Danny he is onto us. What are we gonna do now? I don't have a supervisor, what was that number anyway?"

"Don't worry sweetie, I got it covered. _Gas, how is the call going?_"

"Sometimes I think I'm not fully appreciated. If they only gave Oscars to cybernetic ghost posing as an FBI Deputy Directors, I should win them all."

Walking out of his office, the Sheriff says.

"I just talked to your boss, Deputy Director Walter Sergei Skinner, or Agent Skinner, everything seems to be legit, sorry if I didn't take your word guys."  
"It's ok, I'm new at this, even I still can't believe I'm an FBI Agent now." Said looking at Danny.  
"Yeah well, you know what Hollywood says: You gotta fake it till you make it."  
"So, were did all the abductions happened?" Danny asked.  
"Here," says pointing a location in a map hanging on a wall behind them. "In the Leech Lake Indian Reservation."  
"Great, I would like the address of all the ones gone missing, and that of any known relative of friend."

Two hours after interrogating the relatives and friends of all the lost people, leaving just one last person to question, they learn only two things and Danny had a theory f his own. Yet, Danny needed this final questioning to verify this theory.  
"So, your... fiancé and your brother, they were hunting you say?" Danny asked.  
"Yeah, Dick always wanted to learn how to hunt and my brother... he just loved it to hunt so much, it was his favorite sport." Sandy Griffin says, an bird of a woman in her twenties and full blood native american.  
"Sport?! You call that a sport?! Killing helpless and little animals for fun? If it was a sport they could get back. Tell me, did Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" Sam sounded mad.  
"Yes, I got hunted by a bear once when I was seven,"  
"And I guess it gves younthe right to hunt them back, right? You know what I think? I think they got what they had coming for-"  
"Agent Lee?! A word with you." Danny takes Sam to the other room of the house. "What the hell is wrong with you?"  
"What do you mean? What the hell is wrong with _you_? Taking me here to solve a missing persons case? Make play FBI? Force me to wear your sister's awful clothes?!"  
"Me? You are the one yelling at the victims here! And none of that is an excuse to do that." He whispers a whisper he might as well have yelled. "Why do you keep doing that every time we talk to one of them? Just because you don't like hunters, it gives you no right whatsoever to critize them, let alone make their loved one's pain even worst. You're no cherry pie. This woman is suffering for her lost brother _and _fiancé. Do you have any idea what it feels like to have your loved ones lost, possibly dead? How do you think I'd feel if Jazz went missing, if you were missing?"  
"I-"  
"How would you feel if I was missing and you had no idea of what's happened to me? Have you ever stopped to think abut what other poeple feels before saying and trying to impose the first thing that comes to your mind?"  
"They kill animals for fun. They got no right to do that!"  
"Bo-ho. Well guess what? Humans have hunted since we first steped foot on this world, and just because you don't agree with that, it doesn't mean you gotta make them feel bad about it. Just because you feel that way, ready to do that, it doesn't mean I do."  
"Are... you still talking about the case, or... that other thing?"  
"…We better get this done."  
"Are you a couple?" Sandy asks as they step back into her living room.  
"What?" Sam and Danny asked at the same time.  
"Sorry, I couldn't help to overhear, when growing in the woods you get a Vulcan hearing, and this house is too small and well, ever since I saw you guys, it seemed like you were a thing."  
"Ah, well… we…"  
"You know, Dick and I, we've been together since high-schiool. And we use to fight that way all the time. Sometimes, I believed he was going to dump me, but the next day we were holding hands like nothing hapened. And during all this years we not even once had sex."  
"Wait, you didnt?" Danny asks.  
"We always thought we were meant for each other, that we were going to be togehter, you know till death do us part. He was always a tad of a dreamer, and he truly believed I was his true love. So, when he asked me to do it, I said I wanted to be with just one man, the one I'll be for the rest of my life, and he said I was the one he wanted to share his life with, so we waited till we were maried to do it. Now he is gone and probably not coming back, I feel like an idiot…"  
"That… must be nice." Sam says. "I mean, to have someone you'll share your entire life with."  
"Sandy, could you tell me your brother and fiance's diet?"  
"They loved to eat meat, that'sall there is to it. What for?"  
"Something I'm working on."  
"There is one more thing I should tell you. I didn't tell this to the police because, I didn't think they'd take it for real. Before they went missing we had this video call."

Sandy shows them on her phone the last video call she had with her brother and boyfirend. The two hunting buddies were in the deepest of the woods, making how did they get such reception an astounding question mark, Dick seemed scared shitless surrounded by fast moving shadows. He shoots at them but they pounce at them like savage lions. Stopping the frame Danny sees they are red eyed wolf-like creatures. The video ends with a frame of it's jaw.

"What do you think it is? Because it sure doesn't seem ghostly to me."  
"Well, almost all monsters in tales happen to be ghosts, doon't ask me why." Danny explians. "Anyway, based on this, it could be werewolves, werecoyotes, rougarous," Sam looks at him confused by this kind of knowledge he now possesed, "a wendigo... or Hugh Jackman. All of them wolf-like monsters with really big teeth, bad tempers and… incredible abs I wish I had," he admits getting a weird look from them. "This is too big to be a coyote-thing and this is not a swamp so it can't be a rugaru either."  
"So you think…"  
"Well, if the bite doesn't kill you, it turns you. I promise I'll try to find them." Danny says  
"You didn't say alive." She points.  
"…I …don't like to make promisses I can't keep." He admits with his head down.

With this new clue they head back to their motel to solve this riddle. First he thinks this was the act of ghosts, and now he thinks it is the attack of the monsters? This was starting to lose any sense, but there was a bigger question at hand she needed to answer.  
"So, at least I think I'm starting to see a pattern here."  
"Really? 'Cuz I can't see any."  
"Well, almost all of the campers were veggie lovers, just like you."  
"Yeah, and the hunters, were animal murders who loved meat. So, not much of a pattern here. Unless this werewolves are trying to make more couples like us," because that can only work great, Danny thinks to himself, "I don't see where is the connection. And what was all that thing of the rugaru and the wendigo? Since when do you know that's stuff?"  
"I'm strching the limits of my knowledge."  
"…Danny… stop the car. I think we need to talk about… what you said back there and… that night…" Sam said.  
"Great. 'Cause, part of this trip is that, I was expecting we talked about it. But… we're in th highway, I can't stop the car."  
"Then pull up wherever you can," sounded looking thrugh the window.  
"We can talk as I drive."  
"No we can't, I need you to pay full attention to me."  
"Fine."

About ten minutes later Danny pulls up the car in the first Tasty Burger he sees.  
"So… what is it?"  
"Danny, that night I…" Sam bites her bottom lip, avoiding eye contact unsure what to say. Never before she has been so nervous about anything else. She didn't to do, or what to say to make things right again. "Danny I…"  
With no fair warning Sam pounces over Danny, kissing and biting his lips taking off his shirt.


	6. Chapter 5

Danny Pantom Unlimited

Chapter 23

Phantoms of the Heart:

Wendigo, Part 2 of 3

Third Act: You know you know (I love you) 

That night…

("I'll surely die" by The Rubens still playing in Danny's radio)

"…You know maybe… is time we… go for it."

"Aaaah… you want to play fetch?" He asks confused.

"Danny I'm not playing! I'm serious."

"Well, I don't know what you're talking about. I can't get the meaning when people beats around the bushes, you know that."

Sam sighs looking prone, mustering the courage to say the words that so vimly elude her lips.

"I think… maybe is time for us… maybe we should… do it."

Danny stares at her in shock, his brain barely processing what was happening. Never he thought he'd live to see the day in which Sam would ask such thing herself.

"…Yo-you mean… do it? Like… like in… sleeping together?" He asks muddled.

"Danny, I… I've thought about this a lot and… we've been together for so long, and after all we've been through I feel that…" Once again the words she's looking for elude her lips. "What I'm trying to say is… I love you, and I think-I know you are the one."

"The one?"

"Yeah, you know, the one I want to be with."

"To be…?"

"Together! Together-together. Not just one night, but… you know, all of them. I want a life with you, I want to be with you forever."

"Woa… Sam, I… I didn't know you feel that way." Damn!, he thinks.

"Danny, I love you, of course I feel that way. Don't you feel that way? Don't you love me?"

"Of course I love you. You are the one I love the most. You know you know I love you… don't you?" says staring into her beautiful violet eyes.

"I do. But…"

"Are you sure that's what you wanna do? That you're ready for this? Because that's not a game, that's a very big step. It's no child's play."

"I am…" replies dropping her gaze.

Gently, Danny takes his girlfriend's hands, touching the graduation ring he gave her two years ago when professing his love for her, still standing in her right hand, "Sam… you know I never asked you to do any of this, don't you?" He asked tilting his head as he held her chin as kindly as he could. "I never pushed you to do anything, if anyone that's always you."

"I know."

"And this is your idea, you want to do it."

"…Yes…"

"Then, why do you look like you're not totally convinced of what you're saying?" he points out.

"I am. Danny, I love you and I want to be with you, now and forever. That's how I feel, how I've always felt."

"I know that. And because I love you and I don't wanna hurt you I'm asking you again: are you sure you're ready, that's what you wanna do? That this isn't too much for you?"

"…Danny, I love you." States holding his hands tighter. "And if there is one person I want to be in this world, or any other, is you… And we're gonna have a future together, right?"

"…Right."

"So it will happen sooner or later. Why not sooner? Besides it will bring us closer, won't it?"

"Well, it sure works for my parents."

"Then… do you want to do it?"

"Sam, I'm a guy, I always want to do it," says apporting a glowing condom he keeps in his wallet into his left hand. "See?"

"Wait! You just carry one of those things around? Like why?"

"Wishful thinking? You always come around, we spend a lot nights together with no adults around…" He replies almost jokingly with a grinn.

"God, guys are all the same."

"What, responsible? Look, ever since the bomb I try be more precaucious about everything, thinking ahead and preparing myself for any situation, even this. I'm just being responsible, ok? I thought you'd appreciate that."

"Yes, I do," replies glancing at him, somehow upset he was that ready. "Fine, then in order to move our relationship forward, as it will eventually, and taking it to a new, deeper level… we're sleeping together… for the first time. Just the two of us… preparing ourselves for our future… right now."

"Wait, really? I mean, right now? Are you sure?" He asks no longer goofing.

"Why you keep questioning? You sure you want to sleep with me! 'Cuz I'm sure I want to. Of course, there's the issue of... you know."

"Right, well… my parents won't be at home all night. They're too bussy at Axion Labs." He points out. "And Jazz is out in a hot date so she won't be back until later, that means… we'll have the entire house for ourselvers… Are you sure we are not rushing into this?"

"I'm not running around town with a neon birth control device in my purse."

"Hey, I've been a good guy about this. I want to make sure you really want this. You think this is the best for us. You say you're ready, so I try to be conscientious and now you criticize me for that? Make up your mind! And it's not neon! It's just… the extoplasm.

"…Ectoplasm?" Asks Sam baffled.

"You know, for… my… ghost baby juice. Wouldn't like to spill it over by accident."

"So you're saying…"

"It's a Phantom Condom, I made up myself!" He says grinning proudly.

Sam sighs deeply placing her hand flat across her face. "…unbelievable…" she wispers. "Ok, let's do it."

"You're sure?"

"Positive. Are you… ready?"

"If you think this is the right thing for us to do, then I'm down with that," says getting a coy smile from Sam.

Leaning on Danny, she kisses him in the lips, wrapping her arms around his neck, as he touches her small waist. The smell of her perfume strikes his nose, so sweet and inciting, her cursing lips, as smooth and tender as a child's lips, had never kissed him that way before, so lewdly and coated in such passion…

Not giving it a second thought, she straddles on Danny's legs non-stopping the kissing. This is it, she was finally going to make love with Danny, she was ready to sleep with the man she loves, she thinks.

Danny slowly slithers his right hand beneath her shirt, lowering his left hand into her legs, the condom floating over his head waiting to be used, is not until he reaches and unclenches her bra clasp single-handed that she-

Abruptly she jumps off of him breaking themselves apart.

"I can't, I can't do this." Says jumping out of his bed holding her bra with one arm.

"Sam… what's wrong? Di-did I touch something I shouldn't have?"

"No. Is… I'm sorry. I should never have brought that up." Sam says as she gets out of the room, weeping, wishing she had never done any of that.

Days later…

Northern Minnesota.

September 11, 02:17 PM Local Time

Inside the Fenton RV parked in front of a Tasty Burger, the young couple finds itself in that same situation of two nights ago.

Sam straddled on top of Danny who was sitting on the driver's seat, kissing-bitting his lips, in such a lewdly way, ready to finally give herself to him, only to pull him back, regretting her decision again.

"I-I'm so sorry," she says pushing herself away from Danny. "I don't know what came over me," she apologizes for this unique and salacious sudden act, this uncharacteristic lapse of reason from her.

"Sam, wha-? What was that?" He asks baffled.

"A mistake, that's what it was," says unable to look at him in the face.

"Sam…"

"Danny, I… I really don't want to talk about it."

"Yeah well, you're gonna have to," he said firmly, locking the doors of the RV by thought with his arms folded. "Sam I brought us here so we can talk about that night, about why you ran off like that. Not just to play the FBI." Danny explains to her, "Why did you avoid me for an entire day? Why can't you just look at me and tell me what's wrong with you?"

"Because it's something stupid, ok? Everything-all of this is stupid! Look, when I say I don't want to talk about it, I don't."

"You know, after all these years together, I believed you'd be more honest with me about your feelings."

"Me? How about you? Are you honest with me?! Do you ever tell me how you truly feel?! When something is wrong with you? When was the last time you ever told me truth?!" She yells weeping.

"Oh, so now you want to put it on me? Now I'm the one who has secrets?"

"Yes, you are." She responds loudly.

"You're changing the toppic, that is not the problem here, Sam. And whatever secrets I have, if I had any, is irrelevant to our relationship."

"So you admit you're hiding things?" She added.

"No, I'm not. And if I had any secret, they're not for you to know. That's why it's called a secret. Just tell me what's wrong with you? What's the problem?"

"Oh, so you're fine with keeping things to yourself, but you're not going to have the same courtesy to me and let me have my secrets? You're so full of crap!"

"Oh. Am I now? Ok, if you want another conversation, we'll have another conversation." He adds getting up and walikg around the RV. "You say that I'm full of crap because I'm pushing you to do something you don't want, something that should be beneficial to us, ike if you have never done the same shit to me?! And is not even something that benefits us both, but rather something that you want done simply because you are a spoiled brat!"

"What do you mean with that?!"

"You hate it when I use my powers for my own gain like winning a poker game, but whenever you think of a way to use them for your own gain it's all 'Danny you should totally do this, no matter how illegal it is, and no, I don't care if you agree with me or not, I just want you to do it because I'm your girlfriend and I strongly believe I'm always right and I'm better than everyone, no matter what others think or feel, or how hard my mistake is slapping me in the face.' You always ask me to do things I don't want to do or even agree with and take zero consideration of my saying in the matter. That's how you always are."

"Name one time I have-"

"What about the three times you wanted me to destroy a steak eating contest just because you don't like meat, completely oblivious to how much I do? Or how about when you asked me to overshadow Principal Ishiyama just to force the school to eat that ultra-recyclo vegetarian crap, by the second time, completely forgetting what happened last time? Or the time you tried to convenceme to stop a construction worker from ripping and 'killing' a dead three that has been dead for ten years, stopping the expansion of a hospital! Simply because you don't like it when progress gets in the way of nature regardless of how much good it brings or how dead is that nature. Sure the more dead, the better to you right?"

"That's it?"

"Those are only the few times I haven't thought of breaking up with you, just because I'm too busy thinking on how stupid your whims are," Danny speaks blunt and honest without thinking, unaware of how much he could hurt his girlfriend with his words.

Holding her tears she asks "Is that how you truly feel?"

"That is how you make me feel sometimes."

"Let me out of here." Says holding her tears.

"What?"

"I said LET ME OUT!" She cries out loud.

Avoiding her eyes, Danny pushes the button that opens the door of the RV, right next to it.

Sam runs out of the car sweeping her tears as she whimpers.

"This is how you make feel sometimes," she cries before slamming the door with all the might of her little arms.

"Just one more glorious victory for Danny Phantom, yaaaay," he says to himself as he leans on the door, regretting everything that happened in the last ten minutes.

Now…

Inside the cave where Danny, Sam and the Extreme Ghostbreakers are held prisioners, and where the later tries to help the young couple with… questionable counseling skills.

"Wow… that was quite the fight, dude" says Brenner."

"So… it is fine from you to ask your boyfriend to do thing he doesn't want and he shouldn't do, but is not ok from him to ask you to talk about something you should talk about just because you don't want to? This is unprofessional to the extreme but you're so full of crap, dude." Sullivan said to Sam.

"Thank you!" Danny says from his cell. "And you know, this isn't even the first time we fight like this, whatever toppic she always finds a way to turn that into a fight, no matter how insignificant, she'll always have a saying that will end up in yelling and crying… and tears with yelling."

"That's not true," Sam argues.

"Like hell is not!" Danny says on the fence of his cell. "I could spend the entire night talking about all the fights you started just this week."

"Like what?"

"Let's see: you bitched on monday about how a burning building causes more damage to the ozone layer and you don't give a fuck about the lives that are at risk, on tuesday you cried and ranted about how unfair it was to use pigeons as messengers during the war and you gave me and Tucke an F on history."

"Well somebody has to think about it."

"People is dying in those fires, why would anybody think about the ozone layer?"

"You know, having this many fights you should ask yourselves: why are you still together? What brought you there in the first place? And most important, why do you want this relationship to go on?" Brenner adds.

The questions sinks deep into the young couple's heads.

Danny mulls on the question whereas Sam promptly replies "Because I love him, I'm crazy about him. Even though sometimes he makes me feel that way he is also the one who makes me happy. Danny I… I can't imagine a life without you, or with anybody else. You're the greatest guy I've met, and even though… I can be a brat sometimes, I admit that, you're always great with me, always so considerate and thoughtful and as understanding as you can be with me, even this stupid trip is just that. You just wanted to understand what's wrong with me, it wasn't your brightest idea, but you always try to do your best to make me feel better. The things that you do… I'm out of my mind in love with you."

"Haha, you just quoted a Drake Bell song, dude," Sullivan says. "Sorry," says feeling his partner giving him a dirty look. "What about you Danny? Why do you hold onto that relationship?" Sullivan adds.

"I… I don't know," he says after thinking the question all the way through.

Fourth Act: Tell-tale Heart.

Now…

"What do you mean with you don't know?" Sam asks sounding even angrier than before.

"It means I. Don't. Know. That's what it means. I dont have a reason"

"You are-"

Promptly Brenner cuts her off before she can say anything that would start another fight asking "Why don't you tell us how did you get here? After that fight, I'd believe each one would take separate ways."

"Fine!" Sam said.

Northern Minnesota. Bate's Motel.

September 11, 03:17 PM Local Time

After his heated argument with his girlfriend Sam, Danny decides to grab something to eat and asks for double meat burger with extra chesse and onion, cheesy on the onions. The smell of the burger was downright the most delicious smell that has ever crossed his nose, and the taste was…

"Mmmm… this is one tasty burger," he says feasting on the wildfire of flavors burning his tongue. The juicy meat, the crunchy bread, the delicious sauce… "Gas, you gotta add this place to my 'I must eat here every time I can' list," he orders while chewing his food.

"On it, sir."

"My glob, this meat is delicious," says taking anoter bite.

Danny floats over his motel bed playing the video of Dick's video call from his chest using his suit's holographic projector after enhancing the quality of the videoto make it High Quality.

"This is beyond baffling…" He adds as the video ends.

"What sir?"

"This guy's name is Richard, but he preffers to be called Dick. It's just… intresting. How would one choose to be named Dfick?" He asks taking a handful of fries into his mouth. "Play it again."

"Sir this is the twentieth time you play that video, what do you expect to find there?"

"I don't know. A clue. Something. Anything that tells me what are those things. They don't look like any ghost I've see, but then again ghost come in all forms and shapes." Danny moans distraughtly. "Damn ghosts, sometimes I don't know why do I do this. It was easier when they just came to me and I got to punch their faces not giving too much of a damn about what do they want, or trying to figure out what are they, or… what do they want."

"Well, this is what being a hunter truly means, if you stay around and wait for them to come to you so you can hunt them rather than actually looking for them, then you're not much of a hunter as much as you are a pray."

"Spiders wait for their pray to come to them."

"They're passve hunters and got traps for that. A real hunter goes out for his pray to well, hunt it. He follows its traces, studies its habits, its usual whereabouts, he learns everything about his pray, even how it thinks, that's how real hunters and ghost hunters (at least the originals before the zapping guns era we live today) do. Our pals here they knew that well."

"Yeah, and look how well it turned out for them." Said bitting his burger. "God, this is delicious."

"Sir, you have an incoming call."

Swallowing his food he says "If it's Sam, pose as me and thell her if she's not going to apologize, then I don't wanna talk to her."

"No, is the girl from a while ago, Sandy."

"Oh, put her on speaker."

"Hello? Danny?" She asks. The phone call was being made through Danny's suit and the voice came out of him as if he was a giant speaker.

"Hi Sandy, what's the matter?"

"Is… what you said earlier. About those creatures possibly being a Wendigo."

"Ah yeah, I remember. Sandy, that's just a theory, he-"

"I know, I know. Look, when you left I started to remember stories my grandfather used to tell me when I was a child, stories of this big evil spirit that devours human flesh and… well he once told me he saw one when he was a child."

"Did he now?"

"Yes. Well I never truly believed him but-"

"Is he still alive? I think I might like to have a chat with him."

"Yes, he is."

"Good. Eh, where does he live?"

"He lives with me. He was out when you passed by but he must be back in a hour."

"Great, tell him I'm gonna pass by. You might wanna keep the half-ghost hero thing a secret, old people don't react well to that."

"Don't worry. I think you aren't the weirdest he is seen."

"Great. I'll see you later."

"Sir, do you truly think it could be a Wendigo?"

"I think anything is possible and as things are, am open to all the possibilities."

"Buit Wendigos are not ghosts."

"Technically they are described as evil spirits, not to mention in our universe werewolves are ghosts, dragons are ghosts, krakens are ghosts… or giant squids. Pandora herself is a ghost, pretty much anything found in folklore, myths and legends is a ghosts."

"Then why not going after them now? If at the end of the day they're just ghosts, shouldn't they be like any other ghost you've fought?"

"Like Sun Tzu said: Know thy enemy. I can't just barge into battle and slugout things having no idea what I'll face, I must go prepared, caculate and wage all the options, possibiliries and outcomes. I learned that the hard way."

"Sir… you suck at math."

"Then ii's a ood thing I got you."

Danny gets on his feet taking his car keys with his telekinesis and walks toward the door only to find with Sam on the other side.

"Ah… You're back."

"Of course I'm back, I'm staying here." She replies discontent.

"Still angry?" He asked.

"What gave it away?"

"I'm not apologizing."

"What makes you think I came here for an apologize?"

"Just saying."

"I came here because we got a work to do, so… no matter how much I want to kill you right now, we still gotta finnish that job."

"Well, I was going back to Sandy's. She thinks her grandfather might know what these things are. I mean other than a ghost."

"Yeah, well, before that… I had to walk a lot to get here, so…"

"You gotta take a shower first?"

"Yeah."

"Go ahead, I'll wait."

04:16 PM

Sam comes out of the bathroom with a towel on her head and clean clothes, her own goth clothes.

"What took you so long?" Asks Danny sitting on the bed.

"It's called personal grooming, you should give it a try one day."

"Hey I wash my hair at least twice a week, how do you think I get it to 'wave' in the air when I fly?"

"Right…" says throwing the towel on the bed.

"Anyway, Sandy just called in, her grandfather is home already," says snapping his fingers, taking them to Sandy's home, "and so are we."

"Damn it Danny, stop doing that!" she cries, "Couldn't you just drive us here?"

"Nah, this way is faster." Says knocking the door.

Sandy opens the door and invites them in, her grandfather was sitting in the living room waiting for them. Danny goes human before stepping into the house. The man inside waiting for him was heavyset, with a deeply wrinkled face and dark russet skin. An elderly Algonqiun man with white long hair draped on his back, with the exception of two locks at each ear and gray eyes. His face was squared with a small chin, and a large flat nose.

"Hello Mr…?"

"Blackwood."

"Mr. Blackwood. I like the sound of that," Danny says. "So, Sandy told me you've seen a Wendigo before."

Slowly, the old man begins to pull off the sleeve of his red sweeter revealing a deep scar, four slashes carved deep into his arm's flesh.

"I haven't seen them, I've lived them."

"Ok… I'm sure there is a cool story behind those scars, right?" Danny asks nervously.

"Sit down, please," Mr. Blackwood asked. Danny and Sam sit in the sofa next to his chair. "What do you know about Wendigos?" He asked.

"Wendigo is an Algonqiun word. It means 'evil that devours', or… something like that." Danny said promptly getting an affirmative gesture from Mr. Blackwood. "It is like an evil spirit, or a demon of sorts. They're hundreds, thousands of years old, like humanity. Each was once a man, sometimes an indian, or a hunter who during some harsh winter, finds himself starving, has no supplies and no help in the way and becomes a cannibal to survive, eating other members of his tribe or camp… If you eat enough of it you become possesed by the Wendigo spirit and over the years, you become this less-than-human thing. You become a fiend and you're always hungry."

"You're most right, young man. Certantly more wise than I was at your age."

"I'm 17. And for the record, I didn't get that from the internet."

"Good. Now listen, the story I'm about to tell you happened a long time before you were born-"

"Oh, can we make a fire? I always wanted to hear one of those stories next to a fire," Danny says getting a glare from Sam.

"Danny, we're inside a house, we can't set a fire in here," she scolds him. "Please, ignore him."

"Your boyfriend is quite the vivid spirit, isn't he?"

"You don't know the half of it," she replied.

"I can see you are quite full of emotions and mixed feelings among… other things," he said to Danny. "You on the other hand… you seemed repressed, you hide them from yourself. None of which is healthy for either of you. Now, as I was saying before I get awfully interrupted," he says glaring at Danny, "this happened before you kids were born…"

November 23, 1958

…For countless generations my tribe would sit around the fire and tell children stories, stories about the spirits of the earth, about travelers from the sky, but above else stories about the Wendigo spirit. Stories of how a hunter would get caught by the dire winter with nothing to eat but his own kind, the most hideous and despicable ac of all. When eating your own kind, the Wendigo spirit would possess you and turn you into a monster with no traces of the man you once were, with a hunger for human flesh that can't be pleased, always craving for more, just as you said.

We are taught at a very young age that suicide and death are preferable and more honorable choices than recurring to something as cannibalism.

When I was a child, my father and grandfather told me these same stories. Unlike most of the children in my tribe, I always believed it was an old bed story… I always was what some would say a rebel, always going against their teachings and warnings, not wanting to believe what they had to tell me and my lack of faith would cost me dire.

One night when going far too deep into the woods with my brother, he and I found a dead deer, the poor animal torn in half. They told us it was the act of another animal, a bear or a wolf, but no animal I knew could do this, no animal could tear another that way, and its skin… torn apart. No animal from this world was responsible for such a thing.

During a whole week the men in our tribe hunted the "animal" that did this, but I knew then that it was something far more dangerous. They told us to stay at home after the sunset and every night they'd go out for it, but I was so curious, I followed them, always careful not to steep on any stick, not to do anything to draw their attention always so stealthy and supple, though now I think they just ignored me and let me follow them to teach me a lesson, and as always my big brother would follow me, keeping an eye on me. He was always my keeper.

For six nights they got nothing, they would always find a dead end. But at the seventh night, that night they found a cave in the deepest of the woods.

"It's a bear cave," my naive brother said, but what slept in there, it was no bear, it was far worse than anything we could ever imagine.

When the first man came in, the ugliest sound I've ever heard followed him. Up to these days I can't get the sound of his screaming out of my head, and I will never hear something like that again, let alone something worse. Never I thought I'd hear a man cry and scream with such pain and fear in his voice. What came after that it is something I'll never forget. The tales of the Wendigo are all real boy, I learn that that night the worst way, just as they said it was a slender creature like a man who hasn't eaten in months, with long sharp claws, and fangs and a mouth like that of a wolf, with his arms and legs covered in fur naunced with blood and filth and an unearthly glow.

It was fast and strong, it torn them in half in a matter of minutes, and they couldn't do anything to save themselves. They tried to shoot it down, but it would always disappear the moment they attacked. It was as if it was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And it wasn't the darkness that made it hard to see it, it was a clear full moon night, but instead the creature, that Wendigo seemed to coat itself in darkness of its own. It was as if it could turn invisible.

My brother and I stood there scared, we didn't know what to do but to watch helpless how it ate everyone. We stared at that thing for hours as it ate the men from our tribe waiting for it to leave, and when it seemed to be done, when it ate the last one of them… it turned its big red glowing eyes sucked deep into its skull right at us. Its eyes… never I've seen something like that, and I pray I never have to again.

And as soon as it looked at us it pounced over us. My brother told me to run as he stayed back to fight that thing, so I did. I ran and ran as fast as I could as my brother, the bravest man I ever meet, shrieked in fear behind me. When the crying stopped I knew I'd be next and I was right. That creature appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my arm, and if it wasn't because of the dawn, I wouldn't have made it out alive. But even till these days, I can feel it. I can feel its claws digging into my flesh, its filthy paws holding my arm… the warm blood of my brother in its fingers… in my arm. The stench of blood and putrid flesh coming from its mouth… and the penetrating stare of its eyes looking through mine, looking deep into my soul as I looked back staring at nothing. I beg no one ever has to look at those eyes so lonesome and greedy. There was not a soul in them, all I could see was its endless hunger for human flesh glowing in them, I could see the spirit's desire for killing, it desired the death of everything that falls within its sight, but over all… it its own death.

When I told my parents this story they went to the same place, and they would only find their bones buried in the bloodstained snow…

"…I never knew if they ever caught the monster who did this… but I can tell you one thing, it is not from this world."

Danny and Sam were aghast with the story. "Ah… Mr. Blackwood, did that… did that Wendigo look anything like this?" He asked playing the hologram of the video with his hands.

When looking at the creatures, the eyes of the old man that remained almost shut down during the entire time turned wide open. Fear gleamed from them.

"That is, that is the Wendigo," said startled, pointing at the video.

"Ok, I'm guessing we're hunting a Wendigo then," Danny said to Sam. "I got no idea how to kill a Wendigo, they're not part of the big three of Hollywood, the only way I know how to kill them is by calling the Winchester brothers so they torch it up." He explains to his girlfriend who only glares at him, "Any idea on how to kill it?" He asks Mr. Blackwood.

"Guns don't work with it, I know that much, neither do knives…"

"Well, I'm guessing we'll have to follow their teachings and torch this sucker," he said to Sam.

"I wanr you, this creature is a predator, the perfect predator. It is fast, and strong and some even say it can control weather at will. It is known as the spirit of the wind in some tribes. If there was an apex predator, this would be a strong number three."

"Number three?" Sam inquired. "Ok, you first say it is the perfect predator and now you say it's a strong number three? Could you at least make up you mind? After what you told us, how could there be something worse than that?"

"There are things worst than them. I believe you two know that."

"Don't worry, I'm a hunter spirit," said with a grin. "Thanks a lot for sharing this with us, I think I might have an idea of who is behind all this now and… I'm sorry for your loss. I know what it feels like to lose your brother."

"It's ok, I've had time to adjust."

"Well, I think it's time we leave. Danny." Sam sounded.

When stepping out of the door Sam inquired "What was that?"

"What was what?" He asks.

"What was that 'I know what feels like to lose your brother'?"

"Oh, that. That's called empathy, you should give it a try sometimes."

"That's really nice, Danny" she sounded sarcastic.

"Yeah, it actually helps to know what other people feels."

"What do we do now oh great hunter spirit?"

"Well, they come out only at night, going out to look for them now would be a waste of time so…" Danny snaps his fingers one more time taking them to their motel room. "We stay here untill the sun goes down and figure out who's yanking the strings."

"Does your great empathy help you to feel when somebody hates it when you use your 'zapping away' trick?"

"Yeah, it feels great. But back to our case, it all makes sense now."

"How comes?"

"Well, Mr. Blackwood said the Wendigo was the perfect predator, number three candidate for the title of the Apex Predator. Now who do we know who is obssed with hunting and uses predators to hunt?"

"Skulker."

"Exactly, and last time he came at me with those mechanical Hellhounds, and it wasn't the first time he used a better predator to hunt me for him. What if this time he decided to go for something more vicious and… predatory to do his bidding? Something that excelled him on everything he can't do…? Which is hunting."

"So you think he's building up an army of Wendigos to hunt you down?"

"Not an army of Wendigos, a pack of Wendigos. They're beasts, so it would make more sense to call it a pack."

"How comes our lives came to the point where a sentence like 'not an army of Wendigos, a pack Wendigos' actually makes sense?"

"I think it all started when you told me to step into the portal."

Sam stares at him arm folded not saying a word for almost a minute.

"You're still missing one thing." Sam points out.

"What?"

"The Wendigo spirit possesses you when you eat human meat. How does he get them to do that?"

"Maybe that's where the campers come in. Knowing Skulker, he would want his pack to have the strongesst predators, which means he must feed the campers to the hunters. I mean they already have hunting skills. With the Wendigo curse, they must be boosted about ten times. He probably forced them to eat or die… or be eaten, or maybe he just gave them human flesh without them knowing what it was."

"Then how do you plan on beating those things?"

"Well, he said sunlight scared the crap out of him, that is something we can work with."

"Do you have sunlight in can?"

"I got something better, I got ghost powers, a super high tech futuristic suit with plenty of cool gadgets and apps that seem to change according to the situation, and the most important thing, a new array of ghost hunting equipment he's never seen," he said with a smirk.

07:53 PM

With the sky darkened and the crescent moon high up in the sky, Danny and Sam prepare themselves for their hunt listing all of the weapons they had to hunt this pack of Wendigos, spread all over their motel bed.

"Ok, so we got acid ghost goo," says. Danny shaking a crystal container that almost seemed like a hip flask with a thick green substance inside, "this thing burns whether you are a human or a ghost so be careful with that, the Fenton Bracelets, ghost grenades, ten for each but I won't be needing them so you can take mine, the Fenton ecto-guns, you got six of them. It seems a bit of an overkill but I intensified their potency so they'll be four times as powerful, that way they're most likely to tear a ghost molecule by molecule or at least limb by limb, but since that upgrade eats to much battery they come with twenty to forty rounds each one so you gotta be careful with that too," Danny explains. "Now, these are a new favorite special of mine: The Phantom Trapped bullets ecto-guns, I made those myself too along with the acid goo and… almost everything else here," says grinning as he points to the three guns with all the glimmer and shining of a weapon concocted by his parents but with something different and unique in their design that made them feel out of place when lying next to all of the other Fenton gadgets getting a weird look from Sam. "If the lasers won't take them down, these babes come with ghost-shield generator bullets that would trap them within a ghost shield generated from the inside out. They pretty much would be trapped inside their own bodies… or they will explode, whatever happens first, I haven't tested yet."

"Wait what?" She asks baffled by his statement.

"Also here we got the Phantom Trackers, we can use them to trace those suckers if they escape to find their lair," says pointing to a plastic rod with ten little silver spider-like devices lined up inside, "you just gotta aim and fire, and if this babies hit them we'll know where they live, and here it is the Phantom Goggles, so far they only come in three light spectrum: normal, night vision for the night and infrared spectrum for the invisible specters, they last only about an hour so don't overuse it, it's more for when we're actually facing them but they want to hide their ugly faces," said pointing to a large metallic set of goggles with six red circular lenses that resembled to the multiple eyes of a spider, "oh, and how to forget about my Ghost Killing Knife or Ghost Blade if you want, never leave the house or sleep anywhere without it." Said taking his ectoplasm laced bowie knife.

"Yeah, I remember."

"Although I'm still not sure if it can kill ghosts, but it sure as hell will hurt," states staring at it with a worried and somewhat confused look.

"And the bat?"

"You mean… The Fenton Anti-Creep Stick," said pointing to the bat next to his pillow.

"Right… And what is that?" Sam asked unable to understand the only piece of equipment that didn't really seem like anything contrived by Fenton Works but rather like something he jury-rigged in his garage.

"It's an EMF meter. It reads electromagnetic frequencies. It's like the first prototype of a ghost detector."

"Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is, but why does that one look like a busted up old walkman?"

"'Cause that's what I made it out of. It's homemade!" Danny said proudly. "It's like my first invention, well I didn't invent them, but it's the first thing I made in my parents lab."

"Yeah. I can see that. And why do we use this and not a ghost detector? This is like from the 90's and is not that reliable."

Danny looks offended and offended he walks away from Sam.

"Where are you going?"

"The wheel in my head got stuck between peeing and hating you and now it says 'I gotta pee on her', but you wouldn't like that, would you?"

"Ok…" Sam says confused and with a hint of risibility in her voice.

"And for the record it might be outdated but at least it won't get mixed signals from residual ghost energy and since we're in the woods we'll have no problem with other electronic devices," he sounded upset at Sam.

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry," said almost laughing and muffled by his words. "It's your first invention, I got it. I shouldn't have been so mean. But just to be clear, you actually made all of this?"

"Well, most of them, yeah." Yells from the bathroom.

"Wow, is just, I must say I never thought I'd see the day when you actually make your own equipment, why and when did you do all this?"

"With mom and dad working at Axion Labs all day and all night with Mr. Gray now they barely touch the lab so I got time to actually do some stuff of my own to suit my specific needs with my own… specifications. Not to mention they won't let me use the weapons they make there so they'd pretty much forced me to make my own stuff."

"That's been like that for almost a year, why do you make your own equipment just now?"

"Because just now I realized I should have done that a long time ago."

"Same to say because you got your butt handed to you last month."

"…Shut up!"

A risible sound escapes from Sam's lips which she quickly covers with her little hands.

"So… are we done here or is there anything else you'd like to brag about?"

"Actually yes," says getting out of the bathroom, "since we don't know how to kill them 'cause no one knows how to kill a Wendigo, or a ghost for that matter, and Wendigos are just way too dangerous to be left around in the ghost zone only so they can come back to earth like… every ghost we capture, we'll have to destroy them the best we can and for that we're gonna need this: the Ghost Gun Flares," says apporting onto their bed four gun flares that seemed like another ecto-gun with a transparent handle that made visible the six rounds each gun had.

"Ghost Gun Flares? Seriously?"

"Yep. You'd believe they're just another ecto-gun for how they look, but they're not quite. I wanted to make a flare that would work in the ghost zone and earth, one that wouldn't stop burning, that way if one of us gets lost we can leave a trace of flares in the air so we can find each other, but for some reason they won't stop bursting in my face."

"No, seriously?"

"Luckily I knew it would actually be helpful in a hunt, like portable flamethrowers only but… with just six shots. So if everything else fails, we got these."

"And we're not taking a Fenton Thermos?"

"As I said, we're hunting to kill, no to trap. The world is better of without those creatures, but… if you don't feel like doing it, I can call someone else and zap them here to take your place."

"No, it's ok. I'm fine, I mean these… these are not animals, they're monsters, they're evil ghost and we're ghost hunters. Hunting things and killing them is what we do, or at least is what we do now. It's just… Danny they used to be people, you know. People that made poor choices I don't approve… and now they're not humans anymore, and now we gotta kill them? What if they're not like the chompers, what if they can be saved? I mean if they're possessed they can be exorcised, I've seen you do that plenty of times. So… do we really have to kill them?"

"Hey, of course I had that in mind, what do you think the Phantom Trapped bullets are for? I'm just prepparing myself for the worst casescenario, in case we can't separete them from the Wendigo spirit, in case the transformation is irreversible and there is nothing human left to save… If we can't save them, this will save many live," Danny says fondling her shoulders. "Now, I know it's hard, I wish I can save them, but I must be mentally prepared should that not be an option, and I know it feels weird, shoot to kill is not exactly what we're use to, but things are different now, things have changed, the world has changed, and we gotta change with it. There is a war at our door and we got to adapt to the situation if we want to win, we go to prepare for it. And you know this is just the begining, right? Things will get worse."

"I know, and apparently you have changed too, you sure know how to adapt to the situation…"

"Hey, I'm trying to change for the best. Be the best hero I can."

"Well, just don't change who you are, ok? Always remember that you are the hero, don't you ever change that."

"You say that as if you think I'll turn evil."

"Right. What was I thinking?"

"I don't know, but I think we got a communication issue."

"My God! Again with it?! This isn't the time to talk about it. Wait-what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about your Fenton Headphones. They're broken. I try to connect to them but nothing. Did you do something to them?"

"Aaahh, that… Tucker did it. He started playing with then and he brooke them."

Danny stares at her peeved and disappointed "Tucker did it? That your best excuse?"

"Fine, I might-might have forgotten to take them off when I was on the shower last week. Sorry. Sometimes I forget they aren't real earings."

"Luckily for you I was also working on my own set of Phantom Headphones," Danny says apporting a blue set of headphones on her ears similar to his parents' only but with a more futuristic design as he made them at a New Milenium Foundation lab, as well as some of his new gadgets. "So far they work as the Fenton Headphones only but with Bluetooth and it comes with a six miles radius, but when I get them done they'll be Technus-proof and we could use them for long distance calls… for free! Or we can charge the call."  
"Cool. Can I play music on them?"

"Last time you and Tucker used them to play music you didn't listen to my calls when I told you 'watch out, giant three headed dragon on your backs', and then you two ranted about that, so no music!"

"…Well, since you put it that way."

"Ok, I think this it." Says snapping his fingers, putting all of their weapons and equipments inside his hockey bag.

"Wow, that is really time saver," Sam says putting the bag on her shoulder and moving towards the door.

"Wait, I've been thinking this through and we can't go there like this," Danny says halting his girlfriend.

"What now?" She asks exasperated.

"This," said taking the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick sticking out of the bag. "This is a bat, this can't kill a Wendigo, assuming it can be killed."

"Hey, don't look at me, you are the one who brought that thing."

"I think this could use some upgrades," says holding the bat with his telekinesis, plucking out all of the nails from the door's frame with it, then nailing them into the bat's head with a simple hand shake. "There! Now it's a 'Phantom' Anti-Creep Stick-wait," says streaming a beam of green light from his finger tip changing the word Fenton for Phantom and adding his colors to the tag. "Now it"s a Phantom Anti-Creep Stick."

"Really? A nail bat? That's your great upgrade?"

"Well… this are actually titanium nails, see? And I made it with my telekinesis. Now let's get out of here before someone notices I took their nails."

"You're putting them back in their place, right?"

"Sure, you can count on that."

"You're not giving them their nails back, are you?"

"No."

Walking down the hallway with a bag full of weapons and a spiked bat, they take the elevator were an old lady looks at Sam's revealing goth clothes and her shoulder bag in a judgmental way.

(Elevator playing "Women's Wear" by Daniel May.)

For almost half a minute, Sam had to put out quietly with the old woman giving her that look that said she thinks of her as the craziest whore she's ever seen whereas Danny was laughing in his head putting a superhuman effort not to laugh for real.

Fifth Act: Run to the hills.

September 11

Leech Lake Indian Reservation, Minnesota.

08:22 PM Local Time.

Danny and Sam arrive at the crime scene, has he called it, and sneak into the reservation unnoticed thanks to Danny's powers.

"I still don't understand, why couldn't we fly all the way here?" Sam asked.

"Ah yeah, that. I try not to abuse my powers that much so I don't fly unless I have to. That's why I drive around and use my teleportation all the time which is easier. Also I cant teleport somewhere I haven't been, specially if it's over a radius of three miles. Now, let's go get these posers and go home."

Joining his hands as if he was praying, Danny summons six clones. "Ok, let's split up, (see what I did there?). You guys, you know what to do, float into the deepest of the woods just like any idiotic teenager from any slasher movie that doesn't know there is a monster on the loose, search for any cave, or anywhere where sunlight intolerant ghostly monsters might dwell as well as any remains of human bones, blood, anything that says Wendigo, and do not engage them alone. I repeat do not fight them, if any of us finds one, you send a signal so we can all go get them. Specially if Skulker is with them,"

"Sir, yes sir!" His clones yell, standing straight and taking their hands to their foreheads like soldiers.

With that final order, all of his clones go ghost and spread themselves, flying into the woods.

"I'm impressed. You're pretty much your own one man army."

"Well, I do what I can."

Using his homemade EMF meter, along his suit's ghost scanner, Danny begins to scout the area looking for the Wendigos with Sam walking behind him, holding the bag of weapons, but hours after searching the woods for any Wendigo or Skulker, thinking they'd finish this case before dawn, they become dissapointed for their lack of success.

Now tired and vexed, Sam begins to complain as always.

"I was curious to see when you'd give up on your own and drive us home, but it's been three hours Danny, three hours! And we got nothing, that EMF of yours is not picking up anything, so clearly there is nothing to pick up here, assuming it can't actually pick up something in the first place, I'm sure your clones are sleeping, I'm getting tired and sleepy, this bag is too heavy and my feet hurt."

"Oh, poor thing," says after swallowing a handful of Vicodin without Sam noticing anything. "That must be so much worse than having a heart condition!" He replies sarcastically, criticizing her pity complaints as he had bigger issues than her, even though she doesn't know of his condition. "Gimme that," say taking the bag from her shoulders. "And for the record my EMF works, why do you think I'm not ghost now?"

"Oh please. You ain't have any heart condition… do you?"

"What do you care about? Not like you are a doctor."

"Why are you being so mean with me now? If you're upset because we haven't caught anything yet-"

"This got nothing to do with the case," Danny cuts her off, "this is about-" Danny gets himself cut off by his own EMF meter beeping wildly as his ghost sense streams out of his mouth and his ghost scanner sounds in his head.

As sudden as his ghost sense steams, dozens of red eyes appear around them.

"See? I told this thing works!"

"Are those…?"

"Wendigos, ain't that great?!" He exclaims as the pack makes itself visible.

"Great? We're surrounded by a whole pack of human eating monsters, how is that great?" She asked.

"Because that means my weapons will finally get a proper field test worth of their greatness."

"You got the most sophisticated battle and hunting suit ever made by man. The most advanced equipment ever possessed by a ghost-hunter, and you prefer to use your own untested toys to fight monsters you've never faced before? You hurt my feelings sir, you really do." Gasper sounds in Danny's head.

"Shut up," he thinks to Gasper. "Now, take as many guns as you can," he says throwing the bag back at Sam.

"Hey, careful, you got a bat with nails in here!"

"Oh please, you've got worst than a nail in your arm," says going ghost, apporting his Phantom Trapped bullets guns onto his hands.

Excited for the opportunity to use his new customized and self-made equipment, Danny faces the pack of Wendigos that surrounded them as Sam grabs his nail bat and one of his modified ecto guns.

"You sure they'll work?"

"Only one way to know," answers pouncing at them, the most heinous creatures they've seen so far.

The Wendigos were gaunt to the point of emaciation, with that ghostly glow onto their green desiccated skin with purple stains, pulled tautly over their bones, with them pushing out against this. Their glow was the ash gray of death, and their eyes glowing red as blood and pushed back deep into their sockets. The Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave with a large head that was not human but seemed more like that of a wolf or a coyote instead, with huge tattered ears and filthy fur covering their arms, legs and back. What lips it had were black, tattered and bloody. Unkempt and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigos gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption coming from the thick beige ooze that poured from their stains.

That odor alone made their presence unbearable, but luckily for Danny his holographic bubble mask was not only for space travel but also for any place or moment where the was no air or it was simply unbreathable just like now. Sam on the other hand, didn't have a high tech filtering holographic mask and the stench was killing her nose.

"I bet you wish you had anosmia right now," he mocks.

"Shut up!" She yells slamming the head of a Wendigo with the nail bat, smashing it with all her strength.

The green blood of the ghostly monster is spread all over the place along with its brain and its broken jaw.

"Hey, this thing does work," she claims exited.

"See? What did I tell you?" Asks Danny as he shoots the Wendigos the ran at him with his Phantom Trapped bullets, leaving them paralyzed just as he expected. "And my Ghost-Shield bullets work like a charm."

The new "Phantom Weapons" seemed to be as effective as anything else crafted at Fenton Works, but as good as they were, the Wendigos soon begin to overwhelm them with an ever growing number. Even worst, they begin to dodge his bullets, the Wendigos were smarter than Danny expected.

"Danny! They're too many, call your clones!"

"Can't. They're down."

"Then make more."

"I don't think I can make that many, and it's too tiresome," explains shooting at the evasive Wendigos.

"Don't be so lazy."

"You don't get to tell me what to do!"

Danny rolls on the floor avoiding the swift claws of a Wendigo, reaching for his gun bag as he fires his last Phantom Trapped bullet missing the shot.

"Just how many hunters went missing again?!" Sam asked.

"Not nearly enough to build this pack," said pulling out his modified ecto-gun. "To build a pack like this… this had to be going on for years!" Said blowing the head of a Wendigo with a single shot.

With Wendigos jumping from the trees all around them, Danny and Sam start firing at will, anywhere they saw them, but the speed of these monsters allowed them to outrun the blasts, jumping from tree to tree, running and swaying swiftly around them and before they notice they're are left unconscious.

So, this was meant to be 2 issues as I said before, but as I said my frst time "I can only get any longer!"  
OK, ok, that joke was hanging way too low even for me, anyway,  
Here Sam gets a glimpse on what's inside Danny's heart, and when speaking honestly... not even he is sure what he feels  
Now, this was meant to focus on Danny and Sam but the more I write it the more I realize the wendigos need more spootlight in the story, as much as the relationship itself, they're not a mcguffin, and that writting teen drama SUCKS!  
It's hard as hell  
do you guys think I'm getting it? cuz I don't 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 24

Phantoms of the Heart:

Wendigo, Part 3 of 3

Sixth Act: Caged Heat.

Now inside the cave…

"And that guys is how we met your cave," Danny said mockingly.

"How did you guys get here anyway?" Sam asked. "Or more like where is here?!"

"The same as you. We heard about the missing hunters and campers,, so we came here looking for them," Sullivan explains.

"But we got distracted doing extreme stuff with ourselves," she giggles.

"And you know the rest."

"And as for where is here, we're in a series of underground caves. It's like a lab in here, the perfect hideout for murderous creatures." Brenner explains them.

"We've been here for almost a week, eating nothing but our chocolate bars we keep for extreme emergencies."

"Chocolate bars for emergencies? That's a great idea, how comes I never thought about that?" Danny says. "All I got with me is a hand-size bubble-luggage with a hammock in it."

"Wait, so you got a hammock in your cage?!" Sam sounded enraged.

"Aaahh… maybe…?" he answers, as he sways in his hammock.

"So I've been sitting in God knows whose urine while you are comfortable in a hammock?! You kakafta, miserable son of a-"

"Sam, that's not the problem here. We're trapped in a cage, don't blame me for trying to make the best out of a bad situation," said lowering the temperature of his cage to refresh himself.

"You're right, then I'll blame you for not trying to get us out of here," Sam suggests.

"Gee Sam, why I am not surprised you thought about running away from problems. You truly are a genius," Danny replies sarcastically.

"Why don't you just shut up and phase us out of here?"

"Don't you think I already try that? I can't get out of here," Danny argues.

"Why not?"

"Touch your fence and you'll see."

Touching the fence of her cage, Sam gets a painful electric discharge.

"Ouch… What was that?"

"A ghost shield. It also extends beneath the walls and the floor."

"You could've said that."

"Would have you listened to me?"

"…I'm starting to hate you already. Wait, why does it hurt me? I'm a human being."

"Barely. The cages seem to have an advanced ghost shield, an Omni-Shield that won't even let me go ghost."

"A what now?"

"It works on ghosts _and_ humans," he explains. "Vlad had one of those, maybe if I make it out I could go back to his place and steal one for me. That could come in handy"

"You serious?"

"Well, he is dead, so is not much of stealing."

"So we're trapped here with the Extreme Knuckleheads until Skulker decides to show up? Great, just wonderful," she says angrily. "What do we do now?"

"We wait for it," Brenner said.

"Wait for what?" She asked.

"We wait till she comes."

"She?" Danny asked. "I'm still not getting it."

"There is a door out there…" Sullivan explains. "There used to be more of us, but one by one, they start taking them away through that door. Sometimes even a whole group will be taken by the Wendigos. Once you go through that door, all you can hear is screaming… until you don't. And then again there is the other yelling, the one of the very angry woman who controls them. Or at least I think it's a woman, I mean no man can yell that much."

"It usually happens at night though." Brenner adds.

"Wait what time is it?" Danny asked.

"…it's twelve past eleven in the morning," says Brenner looking at her digital watch. "The Wendigos won't be up until another twelve hours at the most. So seeing none of us might get out of here alive or human, and we may die tonight… we can either solve your issues now or you guys can try avoid them all day until we're forced to eat some else or be eaten, it's your choice. Literally, they make us choice sometimes"

"Either way if you don't work things out now, you might not live to do that later and you'd die mad at each other. Do you guys really want that?" Sullivan sounded. "I know couldn't bear to die mad Brenner."

Danny and Sam remain quiet and thinking for almost a minute, not uttering the faintest sound. All they could think of. was how would they feel if they lose the other still mad at each other.

Finally they decide to solve their problems now, afraid they might not do it any other time.

"So are you gonna talk or what?" He sounded.

"Damn it Danny! Why do you got to be such a jerk about it?!"

"I'm the jerk now?! All I want is to know why you ran like that. How does that make me a jerk? Because I care about you? Because I wanna know what's wrong with us?"

"I ran because I realized I'm not ready, ok?! That's why I ran twice," Sam yells, almost crying. "I finally said it, are you happy?'

"Well, was that so hard? All you had to do was say so. What did you think was gonna happen?"

Sam sighs and then says looking prone "You don't get it. Is not just that I'm not ready, I can't help it if I'm not ready. I can't change the way I feel, is that… Look, the reason I did what I did is because we both agreed that sleeping together would bring us closer, but the idea of that much physical intimacy, is just too overwhelming to me, that's why I couldn't do it. And since I can't do it… I can't be that close to you… I guess I thought that must drive us apart… I thought you might dump me and I don't want that."

"So you said we should have sex because you wanted us to be closer, but then you run because you're afraid of being that close, and then you avoid for an entire day because you don't wanna lose me? Sam that's retarded. If you're not ready and wanted to back off, you could have just said that instead of running away from me. I wasn't gonna get mad at you and I was not gonna dump you for _that_. If you had explained to me first… all you had to do was say you changed your mind an-"

"It's not just that I'm not ready," she cuts him off. "It's that I'm scared, I'm terrified of losing you. After that fight you had, I just keep thinking you might not be with me tomorrow. That's why I said we should do it in the first place. And I know you know things between us haven't been so great lately, well, not ever. It's always been on-and-off and… I wanted to make things better."

"But we always get back together. I… guess that must mean something."

"Except… next time we might not. What if next time you _can't_? Or what if next time you dump me for good? Sometimes I don't feel like you're happy with me, so I thought that way you'd love me even more and you wouldn't leave me… Danny, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

"Same thing. If I lost myself, I don't know what I'd do," he jokes.

"Hehe…" Sam laughs softly and then sighs.

Danny pauses for a few seconds. "You know I would never do something like that, or anything to make you feel uncomfortable or any more miserable than you already are, don't you? I mean I never asked for that, so I don't know why you would think I'd dump you for not sleeping with me."

"I guess sometimes I _do_ get some stupid ideas in my head," she admits.

[Danny sighs] "Sometimes… I am not happy with you." He admits morosely.

When hearing those words a non-subtle heartache takes her, as she heard the thing she wanted to hear the less, but she knew she shouldn't be surprised for she wasn't always the perfect girlfriend for him.

"I see… I guess I was right on that one… eh?"

"I'm sorry. I love-I love you more than anyone, don't think for a second I don't, but… sometimes you make me feel like I'm just your personal project. A flawed prototype of the perfect boyfriend, a tool you can use to wipe away those things you don't like."

"Danny, that is not true. Why would you… right that's why." She stops herself thinking of all the times she has asked him to do something for her he doesn't want to do, and for the first time thinking on how he feels about it. "But even if I could handle it, what if you were disappointed of me? That-that's what scares me the most, I heard all those stories about first times that just weren't so… special, you know? Why do you think I'm an only child?" Danny wipes his head confused. "And if ours is not, then our whole relationship could be ruined."

"Think again. Sam I knew you weren't so committed that night. In all honesty, I was planning to phase my hand into your brain disrupting your neural pathway functions just enough to knock you out."

"What?!" Sam asks confused.

"Sorry, I've been studying."

"So, in the event of Sam actually being able to sleep with you, you just would've stopped that by knocking her out?" Brenner asked.

"Well, I thought it was better than knocking her up."

"Wooow," Brenner adds with a tone of shock and sarcasm in her voice, writing it down in her clipboard.

"Now, are we done here?" Danny asks.

"Ha! Sadly… no." Sullivan sighs.

"Unless something happens in the next five minutes, this is a twelve hour session. We got an extreme load of things to talk about," Brenner points out.

"Like what?" Sam asks.

"Well, for once there is your boyfriend's fear to commitment," Sullivan retorts. "There is also your intimacy issues, the conflict with your parents…"

"And let's not forget your fear to your latent homosexuality," Brenner said to Sam.

"What?!" She asks flabbergasted whereas Danny laughs softly covering his mouth with his fist.

"C'mon, you know it's in there somewhere," Brenner says.

"How did you come up with that?-Ok, you know what? I'm not having this conversation anymore," she says sharply. "I appreciate the help so far, but this session is over."

"Why? Is it because you are hiding something from yourself? 'Cause let me tell you, since the moment they dragged you into the cave, you gave off those gay vibes," Brenner comments.

"There is nothing-I'm not a lesbian or a bi! Why does everyone want me to be a lesbian?!"

"The world is a better place when you know and accept what you truly are, Sam." Brenner says.

"What? No-I'm gonna-"

"Bring me that skinny albino girl with skimpy clothes, NOW OR I'LL COOK YOU ALL!" A loud and high pitched voice coming from a distant room sounded, cutting Sam's speech before she could mutter whatever profanity was coming through her mind. "For years she refused to taste-even insulted my gifts, but now she will learn the pleasure of eating meat one way or another…!"

The yelling came through the door at the bottom of the cave, connecting with a room they could not see from where they stand, and even though it sounded awfully familiar they still could not identify who this ghost was but they could tell now for sure that it was certainly not Skulker for only a woman can yell this loud. And this is as far as his Wendigo Pack theory goes.

Walking through the steel door, a group of three Wendigos comes out looking for Sam, dimly illuminating the cave with the room's light leaking from behind them. Opening her cage and ghost shield, they take her out as she kicks and fights to break their grasp.

"Sam!" Danny yells floating on his fence trying to see what was happening.

"Danny, help me!" She yells as she is hauled across the cave into the room.

In seconds her screaming quickly fades away.

Sam strives to break the clutch of her captors but rather soon she finds it was pointless to keep fighting, they were simply stronger than her.

In through the door, she finds herself inside a blood stained kitchen, with nail marks and bloody handprints left by the victims when hauled all over the floor. Once inside, the stench of death hanging heavy in the air hits her nose, an odor so strong that forced her to hold her breathe but a second smell so fetid, coming from a set of pots and skillets with a sour and reeking gravy oozing and boiling on green fire gets to her.

On a table next to the oven she could see a pair of human arms and legs butchered with flies buzzing all around them and a large meat knife stuck in an open torso. Then something she rarely feels came to her: fear.

What kind of monster could think of cooking and eating human meat and even worst forcing men to eat each other?

[Sam gasps.]

Now she knew it, she should have known because of the kitchen she was in. No, not just the kitchen, she should have known because it was there all along, blatant and obvious, it was all about the meat!

"Of course…" she whispers. "It was you all along! …You are behind all this. Why?!" She utters in shock, demanding an explanation from her captor the moment she shows her fat green body floating before her wearing a bloody apron holding a large, bloodstained kitchen knife in her face in a threatening manner. All this time the ghost they had been looking for was the only ghost who loved meat enough to kill for it: the Lunch Lady, and they didn't even think of her.

"This isn't like you, I mean, the insane love for meat, yeah, but this? Hunting, killing and eating humans? Eating their flesh?! This is insanity, this is-You know what? I take it back, this is totally like you. I just can't believe I didn't see this coming."

Her frown red eyes meeting Sam's sent a cold shiver down her spine reaching her legs, fear like she's never felt before has taken over her. Sam has never been the kind of girl who gets scared with ease, especially not by the Lunch Lady and yet, here she was afraid of her! She never thought of her as a real threat since all she ever did was throwing food at them. She never thought she was capable of doing such thing as killing a person, then cooking and eating their meat.

But how could this be? For as long as they knew her she has always been all about sudden outbreaks of rage when people didn't eat meat, always yelling eating meat was essential, and glossing out on the goodness of it, and how people is made out of meat and… again, it was so obvious she can't help but hating herself-and Danny-for not seeing this coming.

"You remind me! How cute, dearie! Do you want some cherry pie?" She offers in her usual sweet voice, apporting a plate with cherry pie in her right hand. "I feel like giving some dessert first today."

"That depends, is there any human meat in it? Because if that's the case then no. And most important, if I say yes (not saying I will), will you give it to me? 'Cause every time I've said yes, you say no."

"You question my peace offering?! Children who do that do not deserve any of my kindness?!" She shouts with her nasal voice as loud as she can, another one of her usual rage outbreaks coming through, with her body suddenly burning in green fire, and her hair blazing as white flames.

"Ok… next time you yell at me, try not to spit on my face," Sam says hiding the fear in her voice.

"Don't you disrespect me little girl! Don't you derogate or deride! You're in my world now, not your world," said slowly waving her blood stained and reeking knife in her face, making the flames of her kitchen grow, "and I got some nasty little friends here," added with a shit-eating grin flashing her ragged sharp teeth, shaped almost like the fangs of the Wendigos prowling behind her.

"Now, I remember you quite well, the vegan girlfriend of the pale ghost-boy. Always with that vegetarian crap."

"Actually I prefer the term ultra-recyclo vegetarian. Vegans are just too arrogant for me. And we're not exactly in talking terms right now," Sam explains.

"Release her." The Lunch Lady orders the Wendigos holding her arms.

"I assume this is the part where you explain me your plan, isn't it?" Sam says rubbing her wrists.

"You want me to explain my actions? I. Don't. Explain myself. To ANYBODY!" She yells making her body and the kitchen to blaze even more, causing the flames to reach the roof, burning the repulsive stew she was working on. "Now, this is how things are going to be, you are going to eat from my grill, or you will be eaten from my grill! Just that simple! Say, would you prefer pepper or salt?" Added apporting a salt and a pepper shaker.

"That's it? You're not gonna tell me some crazy backstory to explain the how or why of this? Just… throw me into the oven like some pig? I don't have to be a vegetarian to feel offended by that. I wanna hear your crazy story first."

"No!"

"Oh come on! If I'm gonna die, at least I would like to know how did you come to this?"

"Fine, since you insist…" agrees the Lunch Lady shutting down her flames and her anger. "But I warn you, it is a long story."

"It's ok."

"It was a cold winter night, almost fifty years ago," says turning her back on Sam. "When I was fired from that stupid Casper High for being way too… enthusiast with my food, I came here to work on a new school, but the headmaster was the same as you: an imbecile who can't appreciate the delicious flavor of meat, let alone how essential it is to consume meat for a good development! [The Wendigos share a confused look] He fired me when I insisted on adding steak Mondays, so I did the only reasonable thing to do."

"I'm guessing you didn't look for another job, right?"

"I struck back and one by one I started taking his family away from him, first his daughter, then his wife and his brother, then I told him: if you want to know where your family is then you must eat my food, and so he did. He ate every meal I put in front of him. At first he wanted to throw up, but when he came to the third plate, he wouldn't stop. It wasn't until that fool was over with enjoying my food I told him where his family was, in his table! His family was the turkey all along! The delicious meat he had enjoyed!" She claims elated, with great pride on her voice.

"You feed that poor man with his own family simply because he fired you?!" Sam asks in shock and awe, unable to believe what she just heard.

"Yes. Yes I did, and then when he stopped crying, he started vomiting. I thought he was too disgusted but as it turns out he was becoming this… He was being possessed by the Wendigo spirit, the most beautiful creature in the world. Once he transformed, all he cared about was eating more and more human meat, so I feed him more in secret. One by one his students became his lunch and dinner until I passed away. I spent years wandering in the Ghost Zone alone. I thought I'd never see him again, but then he told me how to find him, and imagine my surprise when I discovered he had grown a new family, something very weird for a Wendigo."

"Wait, you mean… that guy, the original Wendigo… it's still alive?"

"Alive? As in breathing and with a working heart? Well that would be an interesting choice of words. You would like to see him, wouldn't you?" She asks leaning her face only inches away from Sam's.

"Yeah… if that's not too much to ask," she says with her arms folded in her back.

"Well, you won't!"

With a smile she insists "Pretty please."

"Fine! But only because I want you to see what awaits for you."

_Excellent, once I find the source of this evil I can burn it down__…_ she thinks holding the Ghost Gun Flares in her back hidden inside her skirt.

Sam follows the Lunch Lady across the kitchen through a passage filled with human left-overs, leading to another cave. The Wendigos follow them from behind keeping a very close distance, enough for Sam to notice how the face of some of them flickers, like a fritz screen.

"So these Wendigos…"

"They're hostless spirits, waiting for a human to eat his own kind so they can possess him and have a stable body of their own. One they can eat other humans with," she explains to Sam.

"Care to explain a little bit."

"Explain? Oh, I see where you're going here sweetie," she says with the sweetest voice. "You sly dog girl, you try to get me to monologue so you can attack me the moment I leave my guard down, don't you?"

"…No."

"Good! Because that would never work!" She yells furious and smoldering. "All you need to know is that the Wendigo is like your boyfriend made of two parts: the human half, and the Wendigo spirit that possesses him. I would've never figure it out if he hadn't told me this himself. Once a human eats another, the wandering spirit of a Wendigo can possess him, or in this case her, fusing into a real Wendigo. And the more human meat they eat the stronger the bond, until they become inseparable, they become one."

"And those you sent after us?"

"They were just spirits, ghost like me-no, less than that!" She says blazing again. "They're just echoes, shadows of a conscience, of the being they could be should they have a meatsuit to live and eat more… well, meat. Poor bastards striving keep their form from fading away by the lack of meat like a homeless child!" Says emphatically with her body burning even hotter than before and her neck veins popping out.

For a second there, Sam was convinced her neck veins were about to explode, that would have made her roar in laughter no matter the dire of her situation.

"The ones with a body, they're still here waiting to get more food so they can complete the possession process." Explains as they get to the inside of a darker cave. "Once the transition is over there will be no way back," she says turning on the lights by snapping her fingers. "Now, let me introduce you the love of my life, The Alpha Wendigo!" says revealing one of the largest monsters Sam has ever seen… just this month.

Seventh act: Hell's Kitchen

Sam drops her jaw as she stares aghast at the Alpha Wendigo, a horned, green-grey skinned ghost monster just like the ones behind her, only but this one was almost thirty times their size.

She couldn't tell its height exactly since it was curled up into a ball like a napping dog, but she guessed it could easily be about a hundred feet tall.

"So… this was your first, eh?" She asks with a half-nervous, half-mocking smirk trying to get past the fear and impression of the Alpha Wendigo.

She couldn't do it.

Its presence alone was far more powerful, terrifying and imponent than anything she has seen before since she could see his victims around him in the form of a green aura with the appearance of wailing souls. Waves of fear shake through her body making her unable to breathe. By simply looking at it in its sleep she was already drowning in terror, she could feel its greed tapping into her heart trying to take her soul, she could feel its endless hunger reaching into her flesh, tasting her, the consuming pain of its craving… and then over all the fear, she felt something else: she felt pity for him, for it was not a monster but a victim. She understood this now, that all he did was not his fault, he had no control over his actions. This monster was no different than an addict, cursed with a sickness that called for a cure that will only make him sicker. No, it was more than an addiction, it was like a cancer that would eat him should he not eat someone else.

"So this is where all the Wendigos come from?" She asks.

"My Wendigos, yes."

"Great. That's all I need to know."

Elbowing the unsuspicious Wendigo on her left in its fragile jaw with all her strength, she manages to pull out her Ghost Gun Flare and set the two around her on fire.

The two Wendigos holding fall on the floor consumed by the almost never-ending ghost flames of Danny's flares. The creatures shriek like dying pigs as they whirl in pain until their bodies are finally consumed by the flames and all that remains is nothing but green steaming ashes.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! My babies! What have you done to them?!" The Lunch Lady asks with her body blazing, burning in rage as it has never done before.

"Trust me I've seen you future kid, and she's prettier than them."

"You will pay fo-" before she could finish her sentence, Sam fires another flare right inside her mouth.

"Just… shut up, stop ranting. You wouldn't like to wake him up."

Quickly Sam opens fire on the Alpha Wendigo emptying both gun flares. The fur soon is consumed by the green flames and the creature wakes from its hibernation sleep somehow undisturbed by it, as if it could feel no more pain.

"Nonononononono!" She shouts trying to shut down the flames.

"You know what they say, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen," Sam says running away from her as fast as she can, but the Lunch Lady outruns her with her flight, now hovering before her as a green flaming fat body with red smoldering eyes.

"Hey, getting some menopause heats lately?" she points out stepping away from the flaming furious undead woman in front of her. "Come on Danny, this is the moment when you show up grinning like an idiot to save me from the crazy monster."

"Sorry to disappoint kid but nobody is saving you today," says rising her kitchen knife bursting into flames, to butcher Sam. Paralyzed by fear she stares at it as it swings down into her face convinced she was going to die that moment.

Except this is not her moment to die.

Firing a cold energy ray, Danny freezes the Lunch Lady's arm and her kitchen knife before she could harm Sam.

"Hey, Lunch Lady, it's been a long time! 'Ice' to see you again."

"'Ice' to see you? That is your great joke?" Sam rants.

"Hey, if you got another snappy one liner I'm all ears, or even better, how about a thank you for saving your life… again. I'm thinking of something among the lines of: oh Danny thank you for saving me, you're the greatest guy in the world and I couldn't live without you, let alone keep my head, literally," he says sarcastically.

"How about I tell you to shut up and you tell me what took you so long," she replies running at him while the Lunch Lady struggles to break the ice in her arm.

"I stopped for gas," said with a smug, getting a glare from his girlfriend. "You think it's easy to fill a cage with enough ice and snow to escape from it? I'm not Houdini"

"Did you bring something for me?"

"I brought some backups," said pointing at the Extreme Ghost-Breakers running behind him. "Don't worry, they're in full extreme ghost-hunter mode now."

"Good, because they were so capable against a fourteen years old ghost, that I can't imagine how can we win this without them."

"Hey, we got feelings too, dude," Brenner said.

"I'm a giiiirl!" Sam replies the way Brenner does every time Sullivan calls her dude.

"Now I know why you do it all the time," she says to her partner, "it's really fun."

"I also brought you this," says apporting his Phantom Anti-Creep Stick. "You left this on your cage."

"Great, a wood bat with nails against a flaming ghost woman with a large butcher knife and an army of human eating monsters."

"Well if you don't want it…"

"I never said that."

Shouting and bursting in ghost flames, the Lunch Lady breaks the ice in her arm and summons all the Wendigo spirits she had at her disposition.

"Danny, those are-"

"I know, I heard your conversation with her through the Phantom Headphones," says going ghost and blasting every Wendigo he could see. "Good job getting her to talk to buy yourself some time by the way."

"Thanks, I learned from the best."

"Dude, that suit is cool to the extreme, where did you get it?" Sullivan asks impressed by Danny's new suit while striking a Wendigo with an anti-ghost yo-yo with ectoplasm laced blades, gashing its chest.

"Let's just say I know a guy and… that's all you need to know."

"Oh, I see, you got super spy stuff going on, eh? Extremely secret stuff. Ok, don't worry. I'll drop it."

"Kill them all and put them in the freezer room with the others! NOW!" She orders to her Wendigos spitting fire and with her head blazing even more.

"The others? Ok, new plan," says Danny holding the Wendigos back with a ghost shield.

"There was a plan?" Brenner asked.

"You guys go back to the kitchen and see if there is any living meat in there, while I take care of the wannabe Iron Chef over here."

"Why do you get all the fun?" Sam inquires.

"Just go!"

"Is he always that bossy?" Brenner asks Sam.

"He got worse in the last month," says as they run back into the kitchen.

"You will not escape!" The Lunch Lady yells.

"Hey, Gordon Ramsay either you chill out, or go back to Hell's Kitchen," he yells firing a powerful cold energy blast trapping her in an ice block, "but either way SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!"

"You think you can stop me with this feeble ice of yours?" She ask melting it down with her flames.

"I think someone is going through menopause here."

"Sam used that joke already," Gas points out.

"Shut up Gas."

"It takes more than that, much more!" She yells wrapping herself in a torrent of ghostly fire and causing a strong wind to blow inside the cave, with all the power of a small tornado.

"Did you know she can do that?"

"Never to that extent." Danny replies. "That is a new trick, using fire and not meat to wrap herself. So not good for me." Said a second before the cave had a sudden and drastic temperature drop to the point where he could see his breathe. "But luckily… I heard a harsh winter is on the way," said harnessing all his cold energy, then realizing it in a powerful blue energy wave in all directions, freezing the entire cave and killing the fire on the Alpha Wendigo.

The Wendigo spirits that stood around him were now trapped inside the thick ice covering the walls.

"Like an awful modern art paint," he says looking at the image of the hideous creatures deformed by the ice.

"Aren't all modern art paints awful?"

"Fair enough. Where is the Lunch Lady?" He wonders looking around the ice cave with his suit's ghost scanner getting no sing of her.

"Sir, I got some bad news. It appears that the lower temperatures help the Wendigo spirits to stabilize their forms as if they had a host," Gas explains as they begin to break the ice.

"What? What does it mean?"

"It means the cold makes them stronger and now they're breaking out of the ice."

"Why couldn't you tell me this before?!"

"Because I wanted us to fail. Obviously I didn't know until now!"

Once inside the kitchen, Sam and the Extreme Ghost-Breakers try to open the freezer room hoping to find the victims of the Lunch Lady, an effort they take to the extreme placing a ghost grenade on each corner of the steel doors to blow them up.

"Why do you have those things again?" Brenner asks.

"We brought them for the Wendigos. Danny insisted on coming heavily armed, you know just in case."

"And you had those inside your skirt all this time?"

"What is your point here?"

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, Sam sewed a few pockets inside her skirt so she can carry things around like if she had pants and put a few grenades inside on the road here, just in case.

"Now, I set the timer for ten seconds, when I press this button we go and find somewhere to hide. You got it?"

"We're almost thirty, what, you think we're idiots?" Sullivan says.

"Yeah, eh… just go hide." Sam said activating her grenades.

Hiding behind the refrigerator, they wait for the explosion to happen and even though it was only ten seconds, for them it seemed like an etern-

The roar of the explosion breaks through the kitchen as abrupt as it could be, startling the hunters, followed by the sound of the steel doors dropping flat onto the floor.

"Hey it worked," Sullivan said surprised.

"Of course it worked. It was just a locked freezer room, not the Fort Knox."

"Hehe, it almost sounds like fart-knocker."

Sam moans with her hand flat across her face asking "Is he always like this?"

"He got worse in the last month."

"Ok, let's see if there is someone we can save here."

Hastily, they run into the larder halted by the sight of the victims' bodies hanging from the roof hooked in chains like beef, some of them mangled to the point where they were nothing but a torso with a head, others weren't so lucky. Their hearts stop as soon as they see this, overwhelmed by horror.

Slowly, they walk into the cold room. "This can't be real," Sam says, but it is really real.

Wandering inside the cold room they find several bodies still intact except for the hooks piercing their chest, one of them was Dick, Sandy's fiancé.

With any luck they might be alive, thinks Sam as she gets closer to them and alas! When touching Dick's face this one open his eyes startling her. It was a living victim, just what they were looking for, and he wasn't the only survivor. The bodies around him also showed signs of life.

Gasping and breathing with troubles the man begins to shake in pain and panic.

"Soon, help me get them out of here!" She yells to the Extreme Ghostbreakers.

Using a laser Ghost Cutter they cut the chains the man was hanging from.

"Wait a minute, you had a laser cuter with you all this time? Why wouldn't you use it to open the door?" Sam asks angry at Sullivan.

"Because… I wanted the explosion?"

Sam moans distraughtly. "Just get them out of here."

Using the cutter they manage to get down all the living hostages and try to get as many of them as they can out of the larder, and how funny it was for Sullivan and Brenner to see Sam having troubles carrying one guy whereas they carried two bodies on their shoulders with ease.

"You feeble child! Look at you! You cannot even hold a man on your shoulders! If you ate some meat then maybe you would have some muscle and you wouldn't have to put so much effort to take just one man out of the freezer!" Yells the Lunch Lady standing where the doors used to be. "Now, put the man down so he can finish the transition!"

"What? You mean that-?"

"They ate my food, yes. The cold helps to speed up the process. Why do you think I have them inside the cold room with all the other death meat?"

Taking a look at the man's face she sees his eyes are glowing red and his teeth shaped like fangs. Frightened, Sam drops the man on the floor.

"Ok, I'm putting an end to all this!" She states taking the nail bat "holstered" in her belt.

"You think you can beat me with your hippie food?"

"No, I'm gonna beat you with a spiked bat."

"Ha! You and what army?!"

"Don't worry sister, we got your back." Brenner said popping out an anti-ghost energy bow compressed within her belt. The bowstrings and arrows of the weapon were made of pure ectoplasm, and emitted a bright pink glow. A grip in the middle of the bowstring would allow it to be fired without harming her hand.

"You heard the boss." Sullivan states pointing at her with his suit's wrist-mounted flamethrower.

In a quick movement Brenner fires several plasma arrows right in the Lunch Lady's face. The energy arrows explode pushing her back into the kitchen's floor. Sam rushes in waving her nail bat slamming her face with it before she gets back on her feet.

The ghost blood spreads all over the kitchen.

Using a fast moving wave to easily propel himself through the snow inside the cave, Danny fights the Wendigo spirits shooting them with ice bullets fired from his hands, which seem to do little to stop them despite how many of them pierce through them.

"Why sir? Why do you keep using ice when you know it doesn't work on them? Why? Why do you persist?!"

"Because I chose to."

"What?"

"I don't know, I thought that's how the line goes," said slowing down his snow wave in the entry of the cave. "Anyway, I think there is a way I can use the snow to kill those suckers."

"Humor me."

Waving his hands in a fluid motion, he begins to swirl his snow twirling it around the Wendigos, first clutching their feet in ice and then shaping it into something with all the seeming of an open ice-coffin.

"Now watch this," with a hand gesture that resembled a rising wave, he erected what could only be the lid of the coffins also made of ice, only the lid came with spikes in the inside.

Pushing the lid into the ice coffins, the spikes skewer the Wendigo spirits in the same fashion as an iron maiden only that they could see the dire fate of the Wendigos through the crystal-clear ice.

Jets of ectoplasm stream out of their ghostly bodies as they whirl in pain, fading away into oblivion.

"So… your solution was to… waterbend an iron maiden made of ice to kill them? How did you even know it was gonna work?"

"I didn't. I just wanted to see if I could. You know my dad has one, why can't I? And why would you say I "waterbended" it?"

"You know with those hand movements, you kind of bended the snow there like a waterbender, well more like a snowbender."

"Well, that is a way to put it."

"That is the only way to put it, sir."

"…Well, since you insist."

Performing a series of rapid arm movements with unique hand gestures he gathers enough ecto-energy before placing his palms forward, forming a diamond shape with the thumbs and index fingers touching each other and shaping a concentrated ghost energy sphere in his hands he then thrusts toward the Alpha Wendigo causing a powerful explosion that not only blows a whole in the Alpha Wendigo but also shakes the cave causing it to fall asunder crushing the monster.

"There. Now you can say I'm an energy bender."

"Actually I was going to say you just used a DBZ type attack, but, whatever sir."

Danny moans distraughtly claiming "When did you become so pop cult stubby? That is my job."

"You use the nearly unlimited memory of the suit to download all the series you can't watch on TV, and you use me as your personal download manager. I can only but learn from you."

"So I'm teaching you something? Great!"

"Teaching is a farfetched term, but we can put it that way."

"It's the only way to put it. Now let's go to the kitchen. I bet that she's in there with Sam."

Eight Act: The Last Meal

With all the might of his legs, Danny runs into the kitchen to fight the Lunch Lady, delivering a powerful superman punch in her face.

Is after she falls on her behind that he notices how beat up her face is: her lips broken, her nose riven almost separated from her face, teeth shattered and even one of her eyes nearly detached from its socket.

"Man, you look like crap and I'm sure as hell I can't do that with a single punch. Did you do this?" Asked to his girlfriend.

"With some help." Sam states

"Girl, I'm running out of arrows here," Brenner announces firing her last energy arrow.

Blinded by rage, the Lunch Lady pounces over Danny apporting a large kitchen knife and a cleaver in her hands to butcher him.

Quickly he crosses his arms in X shape to block the kitchen knife with his arm blades, with her cleaver she tries to sever his midriff to no avail, not even scratching the TDA fabric of his suit.

"Ha! Good luck trying to cut a man wearing a fullbody jumpsuit made of indestructible fabric!" Danny gloats.

"You might have an indestructible suit covering all your body, but I know somebody who doesn't!" Claims looking at Sam over her shoulder running at her with the nail bat.

Swaying her right hand with her kitchen knife, she aims to slice her head off, but Sam swiftly-if not luckily-blocks the attack with the Phantom Anti-Creep Stick. Pulling her knife to retrieve it she realizes it was stuck and decides to kick Sam in the stomach sending her into her table with all the butchered meet.

"Sam!" Yells Danny lashing upon the Lunch Lady with his push blades, using all the strength he can put on his fists, but her big fat body refuses to fall to his mighty blows. Instead, she ignores her fatal wounds and strikes back with more than enough strength to fling Danny into her refrigerator.

With her body on green fire cauterizing her wounds, she walks at him enlarging her cleaver, making it look almost like an axe with a 10 feet long handle and a ridiculously large blade, rising her hand ready to kill him.

"Always knew my COD would be a hysterical woman… in the kitchen… with a knife, just always thought it'd Sam or Jazz finally having a breakdown."

"At least you're already in the freezer." Gasper says.

"Not helping, Gas."

"My babies will feast on your flesh. The flesh of a hybrid, how delicious it must be your meat, how powerful they will beEEEEEEEEEE!" She shrieks falling on her knees, with a stabbing pain in her back so great even her fire goes off. Getting out of the refrigerator Danny sees his girlfriend standing behind the Lunch Lady, stabbing her with the kitchen knife she left in the table.

Nobody cared to notice this before, but the floor was now a bloody mess mixed with ectoplasm, a pool of human and ghost gore and the more Sam stabbed her in the back, the more green rained down on the floor and the more the Lunch Lady shrieked.

"You stupid child! You think you can attack me with my own knife?"

"I can and I do, just watch me!" Sam answered stabbing her again, and again, and again and then one more time stopping only by an invisible force holding the knife over her head, with a green ghostly aura on it.

It was the Lunch Lady using her kitchen powers "I got control over food, meat and kitchen INSTRUMENTS!" Shouts flinging the kitchen knife over the room with Sam holding it. "Now I'll be clear about this once [all knives and forks in the kitchen begin to float with the same green ghostly aura onto them.] I am the one who holds the knives here and I'M the one who cuts people here!" Yells throwing them at Sam but with lightning fast thinking Danny uses his own telekinesis and manages to stop them only inches away from her face.

"Sorry to break it up to you hon, but the only one getting cut off here is you!" States Danny pinning her against another wall with her own knives.

Her ghost blood pouring through death-dealing wounds that no human could survive, painting the wall green, flooding the floor.

"Congratulations, you got me. And now what? You trap me in a thermos like soup and then free me into the ghost zone? We will only come back stronger."

"She is right." Danny admits.

"But… what else can we do?" Sam asks.

"Is clear that the old trap-and-release system doesn't work. So there's only one thing we can do about her." Danny says leaning towards her. The lacerations on her arms, thighs and stomach aggravate the more she struggles to break free.

"The thing is I've had it up to here with you ghosts!" says pointing to his head. "At first you all were nothing but a nuisance always coming to our world, screwing things up, and I was always willing to play along, putting an end to all your craziness, to put up with you because you were always so damn stupid I couldn't see you doing any real harm. But now you come here to kill people, to eat us?! Well guess what?" He asked pulling out the knife in her stomach so-violently, opening her stomach and spreading her green guts on the floor, to which she did not flinch. "I'm not letting you do that again."

"And what are you gonna do about it?" She asked mockingly. "You can't keep me looked forever."

"You're right." Said slowly placing her kitchen knife in her neck holding it by both ends. "Look at me. Look at me, bitch!" ordered retracting his mask. "Look at my eyes and tell me, what does it look like I'm gonna do?" Said pointing his eyes at hers.

His eyes were not as she remembered from all their prior fights, they had more than just that senseless bravery that defined him always pushing him into battle, and there was not a trace of the joyful, noble and caring hero soul she had sought in him in the past. Instead all she could see was this blunt, gruff and rage-filled character she didn't recognize. For all she could tell his eyes were not those of a human but those of a real ghost! She couldn't stare at the hate in his eyes, all she could do was look away.

"Look at my eyes bitch. I said looking my eyes!" Slowly she begins to look into Danny's eyes.

"A-are yo-you sure don't want to talk?" She asked scared.

"There is nothing to talk here. You fiends come to my world looking for war?! Well guess what? You got it! And the one thing I learned in history class, is that when there is war, heads roll. 'Cause you see, a ghost, that's bad. A body-chipping ghost - that's worse enough, but ghosts that kidnap people to eat them and force them to eat each other… Well, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm going to put you down and I'm going to enjoy putting you down."

"Is he going to do what I think he is about to do?" Asked Brenner.

Slowly Danny pushes the blade on her neck cutting her head off as she smiles with her tattered lips flashing the teeth she had left.

The blade touches the wall as the head slowly falls from the body onto the floor, bouncing and then rolling on the pool of human and ghost blood around them.

"I always wondered since you're ghost… can you die again?" Danny asked rising his left foot, concentrating his ghost energy on it. "We're about to find out." Said stomping on her terrified head, blowing it up.

Rising his hand at her squirming body, he fires a blue ghost ray to disintegrate her body molecule by molecule, leaving behind nothing but a blue steaming hole in the wall.

"Now, is there anything else we're forgetting?"

Nervously Sullivan replied "That would be the soon-to-be-Wendigos in the freezer room."

"Right. Leave them to me." Danny says pulling out his claws and apporting his Ghost Killing Knife.

"Danny… what are you gonna do?" Sam asked afraid of even guessing what would happen next.

Entering the freezer room with hands smoldering he responds "What must be done."

Once inside, he locks the entrance with the doors, using his telekinesis, and for the next ten minutes all they could hear was roaring, screaming and shrieks like no other. From behind the doors all they could see was jets of ectoplasm hitting the broken windows and even more running down the doors.

Sam, Sullivan and Brenner were aghast by what they just saw, and after that they couldn't and didn't want to imagine what was happening behind these doors.

September 12

05:16 PM

Northern Minnesota, East Mercy Hospital.

Or… later that day.

With the Lunch Lady and her Wendigos' death, Danny was able to bring some peace to the families of her victims, and even more, he was able to save those who were in transition by tearing the Wendigo Spirits out of them, then killing them with his Ghost Killing Knife which proved to be a success slicing the Wendigos' necks, arms and even heads off.

Dick, Sandy and her family were forever grateful for this, and could not find words to show their gratitude.

"It was nothing, really. I've separated possessive ghosts from humans before, I thought this was no different. I'm glad I was right as always."

"Still… thank you so much. I owe you my life." Dick says.

"Just stay away from hunting, and this goes for her brother too. Eh, I gotta go check on my girlfriend now… while I still have one."

Giving his farewell, Danny goes to check on Sam on the next room.

"So… are you ok?"

"Yeah, a little bruised but the doctor says I can leave."

"Great."

"Look Danny, about what happened this week… I'm sorry. You were right, I should have been more honest with you."

"Hey, no need to apologize, we're both the same. So, ready to go?"

"Yeah, just… one more thing, what happened back in the cave?"

"What thing?"

"'Look at my eyes bitch?' A real charmer's line there. What the hell was all that about?"

"Hey, it was the best line I could come up with."

"Yep, I noticed that, but Danny you decapitated her with her own knife, and… is it just me, or don't you think you enjoyed that a little too much?"

"So? You stabbed her in the back with it, and I could tell by the look in your eyes you had he time of your life there."

"Yeah, but Danny that was… that was so out of character. Killing off your enemies. That is so not like you. What happened?"

"What happened is that they changed, they started to kill people. And I think it was about time for me to have a change too, maybe it is time we get a more effective solution to our ghost problems. Sam I've had it up to her with them. Besides after all she've done, she deserved more."

"…I guess you're right. But Danny, I can't help but worry about you."

"Hey, don't worry about me," said fondling her shoulders. "I'm a hero, remember?"

"I guess you're right."

"Besides, they're ghosts. They're already death, all I did was destroy an odd manifestation of post-human consciousness and ectoplasmic energy."

"Ok, how much time do you spend in your parents' lab again?"

Epilogue 1: Love Bites.

Ready to head back to Amity Park, Danny and Sam say good-bye to Brenner and Sullivan, and thank them for helping them with the Lunch Lady, the Wendigos and their issues.

Inside the RV, Danny throws his weapon bag, which he retrieved from the woods, right where he and Sam were taken and even packs a few souvenirs from their trip that Sam wanted to take home with her, the Lunch Lady's kitchen knife and cleaver, which returned to its large but not-so-large size after her demise. But the way home was not as Danny thought it would be, as he would soon realize that night, not all their troubles were solved.

"Are you hungry? We haven't bitten anything all day," asked with Sam sitting in the passenger seat. "I already got food. Salad for the pretty lady in the passenger seat and the best burgers I've ever tasted. I know after this I shouldn't be eating meat, but I just love this place."

"Aha." Sounds barely paying attention to him.

Not knowing what was wrong, he asks Sam "Are you ok, sweetie?"

"Yeah, I just can't keep thinking of something."

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it's nothing." Said steering the car.

"Is just that, is… what you said."

"What did I say?"

"Nothing! Danny, when they asked us why do we want this relationship to go on, I said is because I want a life with you, I want a future together, but then… then you said you didn't even know why on earth you are with me in the first place."

Danny remains silent for almost a minute with his head down, not knowing what to say to his girlfriend.

"That's it? You're not gonna answer me?"

"Sam… I-I don't know what to say, I-"

"Typical!" She moans angrily, moving to her bed. "You big - You know what? I'm not even gonna get mad at you… If you got nothing to say about it, then you don't dare talking to me for the rest of the road!"

"Sir, not sure if it's right for me to point this out now, but… you should do something about the knives she brought with her before we get a second tragedy."

"It probably will be for the best." He thinks.

After hours of driving late, they finally make it home about 3 A.M. Stopping the RV in front of Sam's house, she gets out with her bags, nail-bat, knives and a grudge against Danny and his behavior that she wouldn't hide.

"I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, what the hell is you problem now, but… I hope you're happy with yourself." Said standing on the door, looking at him over the shoulder.

In his house Danny is received by his always loving mother and sister.

"So… how did it go? Did you and Sam got what you were looking for?" Jazz asks.

"…Yeah, kind off."

"And did you…?"

"We didn't do anything mom," he cuts her off, "we just got into more trouble… as always. Isn't a little late for you to be out of bed?"

"Sweetie, we were waiting for you, we're always worried when you leave to this hunting trips of yours," Maddie said.

"Yeah well… thanks, but there is no need for that. Look, I'm tired and I just wanna rest in my bed," says sorrowful as he walks upstairs.

It was clear for Jazz and Maddie that something happened in that trip, but they would never have an idea of what happened.

The following day Sam would avoid Danny at all cost, not like that required any effort from her part as he didn't try to call her, or text her for an entire day thinking how to answer that question, and with the coming of a starless night comes the answer he was looking for.

September 13

11:42 PM

Casa Manson

Floating outside his girlfriend's window, in his human form, Danny knocks the glass to call her out.

[Drake Bell, Shades of Gray starts playing]

He waits for several minutes, the sound of Sam groaning as she gets out of bed and comes through the glass until he finally opens the window wearing only an Iron Maiden black top and her crossbones panties, saying unexcited "Oh, it's you. What are you doing here?"

"I… think we need to talk."

"Do we now? Haven't we talked enough already? 'Cuz I think you've said enough."

"No. Sam, I got something to say and it can't wait… Can I come in?"

Glaring at him, she mulls for a few seconds. "Sure."

[Find love or will it find you

When you've made your mistake?]

Once inside her room, he can't help but to take a good look at her beautiful body, unable to deviant his eyes from her long well-shaped legs. Very few times in the past he gets such a good look of her leggy figure as he does now, and the way the moonlight streamed through the window she was standing next to, bathing her fair skin made her even lovelier than ever before, which made what he was about to do even harder.

"Ah, could you… you know, cover it?" Said waving his hands around her legs.

[You live once, so look behind you]

"Cover what?"

"You know, just… your whole self. It's gonna be hard to do what I came to do if can't stop looking at your legs."

[And give more than you take]

"Fine." Agrees putting on a diaphanous purple nightgown that didn't really cover that much of… anything. "There, better?"

"No, not really."

[You save the sun

I need to run]

"Just tell me, what is it you want?"

"Is about what we talked, or more like what we didn't talk."

"Ah, that…"

"…Sam, you know I love you, and I love being with you. You are the best girlfriend I've ever had."

"I'm the _only_ girlfriend you've ever had!" She points out emphatically.

[From your shades of gray, washing my world away]

"Exactly. And I love being with you, I can't think of being with somebody else. But as much as I can't imagine myself being with another girl… I can't imagine that life together you said you want."

[Into the future, will I never lose her?]

In shock Sam utters a faint "What?!"

"Sam, you said you wanted a life with me, you pictured a future together, but I don't. I can't do it. I realize that now."

"Wow, go back. What do you mean with that?"

[Same for the shades of gray, washing my world away]

"Sam, that night you said you wanted to have sex, I was scared too because I didn't know how to tell you this. You were thinking - talking of spending the rest of our lives together while I don't even know if we will… What I mean to say is, I can't love you the way you want me to. You wanna know if I'll love you forever? I don't know, I don't know. Maybe if you stick around, I'll never stop loving you or maybe I will, but in all honest I can't know for real."

[In the confusion, it's only illusion]

"Danny are you…? Are you breaking up with me?"

"No, no. I'm not saying any of that. What I'm saying is… You'd want me to promise you that I'll love you for the rest of our lives, but I don't wanna make a promise I can't keep because I don't know what will happen next. If I knew what our lives would be, it would be perfect. But I don't know how it will end."

[Same for the shades of gray]

"Danny, when you gave me this ring, you said no matter what the future holds for us, you wanted me there with you," she saying showing him the graduation ring he gave her two years ago after he saved the planet, thinking he could spend the rest of their lives together.  
[Shades of Gray stops playing]

Of course, she has

"But that is the thing, I didn't know I would change how I feel, and if-"

Sam quickly cuts him off with a hand gesture. With her face down, her eyes shut down tight and biting her lower lip, Danny could see how much hearing the truth hurt her by just looking at her.

"Do you love me?"

"I do. I love you."

"Good. Then maybe we should take a break."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Are _you_ breaking up with me?"

"No. I just think… maybe we need some time away from each other. Is clear we're in different pages in this relationship and we could use some time alone to… clear our minds."

"I see…"

Slowly he approaches to the window thinking this was the last of their relationship, but just before he flies out of the window, Sam turns on him and kisses him the same way she did in the RV, wrapping her arms around his neck. She holds their lips together for a long time breaking them apart only for a second to say "I love you," while holding her tears.

"I love you too." Danny said kissing her back, grabbing her small waist. "But I gotta go."

Resting her head over his shoulder she whisper to his ear "You're right on one thing… Our lives, our future together, they would be perfect."

"But that is the thing, we don't know." Danny whispers as he vanishes away, leaving a heartbroken Sam behind, to cry in silence.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 25.1

`hantoms of the Heart:

Space Ghost Porlogue

In the year 1946, in a post-World War II Poland, an American soldier settles in a small town that no longer exists, running away from his hometown, and the hero welcome he deserved. He opts for a quiet and peaceful life in an insignificant county and lives a farmer's life. For more than a year he did nothing but working the fields, feeding his cattle and shooting the intruders that stepped in his property.

In November 26 of 1947, when driving back from the local bar to his farm on his Ford, he sees the most astonishing thing he has ever seen in his twenty years of life.

It was lonesome starless night, he had been drinking with the few friends he had, and he was ready to rest his head on his pillow before resting on the sidewalk again, when a green flash of light rushed over his head. For a second he thought he was too drunk, that he was hallucinating but the reality of the case was more terrifying, he realized that when that light stopped moving, hovering over his village followed by three more lights.

Something weird was happening, something he could not explain, yet, he knew that those lights meant trouble, he could smell it in the air, and he wanted to stay away from that but instead he drove to his house and took all those weapons he kept from the army, all his shotguns and everything he could use to kill somebody.

He felt dange-death pering in the air, he knew people was going to die that night and it was up to him to stop it. Maybe I've gone crazy, he thinks as he drives, maybe I should go back to my place, this is only the alcohol and I'll find nothing down there.

Every day that followed he wished he was right, because what he saw he would never unsee it again: the entire village reduced to green flaming shambles and in the fire he saw the weirdest war tanks he had ever seen so far with the upper half shaped like a man with machine guns for arms but with the head of an insect, spitting green bullets everywhere, or at least he thought those were green bullets because that was the color of the fire and what else could fire a gun but bullets? The answer didn't take long before arriving, in the form of a blue beam of light blowing the head of the tank.

Many more blue bleams rained down over these otherworldly tanks, fired by men flying in fine armored outfits with jetpacks that made him think of those space movies that are becoming so popular in Hollywood. Now could it be that they were men from space? Could it be that the War of the Worlds of H.G. Wells was not a story but a prophecy?

No, it was impossible. There had to be a logical explanation for this, something grounded to reality. He was never a man who believed in things out if this world, not in monsters, not in ghosts, and certaintly not in aliens.. Maybe the Nazis were attacking again, yeah, that made sense, this was their retaliation, and from those tanks he would see a blonde man coming out, but it didn't. Only more weirdness came out of it, a metallic creature with all the seeming of a spider, prowled out of the tank, an eight legged robot that ran at him screaming!

Instinctively he begins to shoot at the mechanical devil that pounced over him emptying his revolver, killing it.

Soon more of those things began to follow, some of them shaped as flies, some others as beetles. Taking his shotguns he fires at everything made out of metal that looked like an insect.

He could not make sense of what was happening but as more of this robots came out he understood one thing, he was back in the war, and was thankful for that.

The battle when on for hours, and he would have died if he hadn't taken that zapping gun from one of those dead men, or at least he thought they were men for that is what they look like.

When the sunrise came only he and three of those metal-padded flying men remained standing. They thought they won, but there was one more of them left, a giant beetle-like robot with a portal on its back.

"Damn cocksucker!" Yells one of these men. "He's bringing reinforcements!"

"What do we do now?" Asks the one that seemed to be a woman.

"Ain't obvious, princess?" He asked pulling out from his clove in a blue flash of light what seemed to be a silver version of a German stick hand grenade. "We blow it up! Now listen, this thing I've seen them before, they won't let me get close so I need you to distract it. It will shoot at anything that moves in front of it, that's where you guys distract it allowing me to shove this up to its ass where it's blind."

"Wait those thing have an ass?" The youg soldier asks.

"Yes they do, McCoy. Now ready to die a hero?"

"You asks like if there is another way to die."

"I like this boy!" The old man cheers.

And so this farmer took a jetpack from the ground and hurled himself with two of these strangers, towards this machine that would fire purple blasts of light at them as they shoot at it while that man sneaks behind this machine placing his grenade on its behind but here is the thing, that mechanical nightmare was not alone.

When placing the explosive, he finds himself surrounded by six more of those metallic spiders.

The young farmer insisted on saving the man, but his allies stopped him saying he knew the risk, and he was willing to die for his world. They take him away from the village as fast as they can, then further away from his farm and wait for the explosion.

The grenade explodes with a might enough to erase the village in a blue burst. It was almost like that nuclear bomb from Hiroshima.

It takes a minute for the soldier to get over the shock of everything that happened just a second ago. He didn't understand what was going on, and he was sure as hell is hot, that he was going to get some answers starting by "What just happened here, who are you and who the hell was that man who died saving the world without people knowing anything about it?"

"The answer," the woman says, "is simple, that was an alien invasion and we just stopped what could be an even worst situation. And as for who we are, that is also simple, we are the future, the New Millennium and that man who died saving the world without it knowing anything was my father." She answered taking off her helmet.

She was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen in his life, with straight red hair reaching her shoulders, a face like that of a goddess and the most beautiful blue eyes he ever gazed with a stare that would intimidate any man.

"And who are you exactly?" She asks sharply.

The name of that man was Samuel L. Fenton, future father of Jack Fenton and grandfather of Daniel Fenton, A.K.A. Danny Phantom, and that night he became not only a member of that secret club, but the one man who would save the world countless times, never taking the credit for it, never taking the recognition he deserved.

Every day, he would always make sure there would be a world for his child, to make sure there would be a tomorrow, always protecting it from the shadows, always unseen.

As time passed by, he and that redheaded woman came to be a family of their own, and even though then, they never stoped saving the world, even if ther lives were at stake for now they had someone to live for, some to give this world to. Only he wished his son hadn't such a narrow mind as did every one of his ancestors, thinking only of ghosts, oblivious to the universe of marvels that surrounded them, watching them far from above.

When their first grandchild was bron, they knew it was time for them to retire, their lives as intradimensional adventurers had ended, and the one adventure they had left to live was their family, now more than ever.

They left their places as saviors of the world asured more people would take their place, as they take theirs watching their grandchildren, telling them stories of how they fought beings from other planets, in moons that don't figure in astronomy book, beings of energy that would take over people's body and even hunting ghosts in this and other worlds.

This tales inspired young Danny to become the man he is now. It is because of his grandfather he dreamed of going out to space, to become an astronaut and discover the wonders of the universe, unlike his father who would only think of the dead.

When Danny saved the world, Samuel Fenton knew he had done well rising his son and his did even better than him rising his own. But it was hard to see that another Fenton would carry that burnden he never told his son about, and to see his time as protector of the earth was over... But then again... as long as _you _live... nothing ever really ends...does it?


End file.
